Biology
The Ocoee salamander maintains a small territory when on land which it defends against other members of its species. It feeds on insects and other small invertebrates and is itself preyed on by birds and snakes. When approached by a predator it may remain immobile or may flee and is prone to autotomize its tail. When attacked by a snake it may writhe about and bite it on the head.
Breeding takes place in the summer. The female lays a clutch of about fifteen eggs in a damp crevice, under a rock or rotten log or among wet moss or leaf litter. She broods the eggs for one or two months after which the newly hatched larvae make their way to a stream, a seepage or rocks over which water is flowing. They feed on small aquatic invertebrates and undergo metamorphosis the following spring or summer. In the winter, adult and juvenile salamanders may occupy underground refuges.
Read more about this topic: Ocoee Salamander
Famous quotes containing the word biology:
“Nothing can be more incorrect than the assumption one sometimes meets with, that physics has one method, chemistry another, and biology a third.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“The “control of nature” is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and the convenience of man.”
—Rachel Carson (1907–1964)