Houston’s wetlands and temporary pools harbor some of Texas’s most elusive amphibians. While salamanders often lead secretive lives underground, down in the mud, and underwater, making them an underappreciated and overlooked group, the greater Houston area provides critical habitat for six distinct species that showcase remarkable adaptations to southeastern Texas ecosystems.
You’ll discover species that breathe through their skin, others that spend their entire lives underwater, and some that emerge only during specific weather conditions to breed in temporary pools.
These salamanders depend on vernal pools—isolated wetlands that form in upland depressions—because these seasonal pools can’t support fish, eliminating a major predator of salamander eggs and larvae…