Cheat Mountain Salamander - Behavior and Reproduction

Behavior and Reproduction

CMSs spend the winter underground where temperatures remain above freezing. Depending on soil temperature, they emerge from winter refugia at the end of March or early April and retreat to underground refugia again in mid October. During the above ground period, they are especially active at night in humid weather. During the day, they remain under rocks and in or under logs; and sometimes among wet leaves. Aestivation only occurs during unusual drought conditions.

The breeding behavior of CMSs has not been directly observed, but most likely occurs on the forest floor. Pairs of males and females have been found together under rocks in both spring and autumn and both sexes during these months are in breeding condition: males with swollen cloacas and squared-off snouts, females with mature follicles. Nesting activities are similar to the red-backed Salamander. The female typically lays 8 to 10 eggs (minimum 4; maximum 17) which are attached to the inside of a rotten log or the underside of a rock or log in either red spruce or deciduous forests. Females attending small clusters of eggs have been found from late April through early September. The female apparently guards the eggs until they hatch (a behavior unique to salamanders of the woodland salamander family, Plethodontidae). The young undergo their larval stage within the egg so that they resemble small adults when they hatch in late August or September.

The juveniles reach sexual maturity in 3 to 4 years and live for approximately 20 years. The young may remain in the same area as the adults until they become mature at which time they move away and establish their own territories. Territories are about 48 square feet (4.5 m2) in area. Woodland salamanders seldom leave their territories and, as a result, move only a few meters during their lives.