North Coast Diaries

And now for something completely different...salamanders

On Thursday, 4 August, Craig Steele and I went up to the north side of Saddle Mountain to look for Cope's Giant Salamander (Dicamptodon copei). Craig is doing genetic analysis of Dicamptodons in the Pacific Northwest for his doctorate and Oregon Coast Range Cope's Salamanders were the last significant gap that he needed to fill.

Larval Cope's Giant Salamander (left) and Pacific Giant Salamander from
Saddle Mountain. Note head shape, gill structure and spotting.

Many of the historical sites for Cope's in the Oregon Coast Range are now silted in as a result of intensive logging near streams the salamanders depend upon. Cope's hardier cousin, the Pacific Giant Salamander (D. tenebrosus), seems less affected by these stream changes (though not immune to them) and is generally easier to find. It certainly was on our trip Thursday.

I should point out that we didn't get to the best streams for finding Copes until late in the day. I took a wrong turn, which put us on the wrong fork of the creek system and we didn't reach the best habitats until fairly late in the day. It also didn't help that I took two nasty falls, one of which left me with a cut and badly bruised knee. This slowed me down to an embarrassing degree and, I think, rattle me enough that I was no longer on my A-game as a guide.

Anyway, we found at least 3 Cope's Giant Salamanders in a very rocky narrow channel with exposed bedrock. Genetic samples were secured via tail clipping. The salamanders were released back into their stream. Now Craig has to go back to his lab a do some gene sequencing. He has already established a definitive set of markers for distinguishing Cope's from Pacific Giant and has also been able to show that the Columbia River is a significant genetic barrier for populations of Pacific Giant Salamander. The original genetic lines for Pacific Giant Salamander probably hail from the Siskiyous and lines that moved north along the Cascade are different from the lines that came up the Coast Range.

Craig had samples of Cope's from the Cascades of Washington and Northern Oregon, the Olympics and Washington Coast Range, but he was missing the Oregon Coast Range, in large part because most of the historical sites are now, apparently no longer viable. Our trip to Saddle Mountain allowed him to plug that gap. It also speaks volumes for exactly how vulnerable this population is in the Oregon Coast Range.

I look forward to finding out how genetically distinctive the Saddle Mountain population is and what that might mean for stream conservation in the region.

The herp list:
Cope's Giant Salamander
Pacific Giant Salamander
Tailed Frog
Red-legged Frog
Northern Alligator Lizard