Ambystoma tigrinum
(Green, 1825)
St. Louis Co., Missouri. Spring 1977.
In a neighbor’s basement, several tiger salamanders were crawling around down in the sump well. It’s not uncommon for tigers and other kinds to hibernate under houses and end up in the cellar, and they often end up in window wells and in regular wells too. I kept one of those tigers as a pet for nearly twelve years, keeping it in a fishbowl and feeding it crickets and earthworms.
No pictures of those early tigers, so here’s one from Iowa found trapped in a post hole, and another from southern Illinois, dip-netted from a breeding pond.
My Flickr album for this species is here.
HerpMapper records for this species are here.
