Behavior
The spotted salamander usually makes its home in hardwood forest areas that have vernal pools. These pools are necessary for breeding. They cannot breed in most permanent pools because the fish inhabiting the pools would eat the salamander eggs and larvae. Spotted salamanders are fossorial, meaning that they spend most of their time underground. They rarely come above-ground, except after a rain or for foraging and breeding. During the winter, they hibernate underground, and are not seen again until breeding season in early March-May.
Ambystoma maculatum has several methods of defense, including hiding in burrows or leaf litter, autotomy of the tail, and a toxic milky liquid they excrete when perturbed. This secretion comes from large poison glands around the back and neck. If a predator of the spotted salamander manages to dismember a part of a leg, tail, or even parts of the brain/head, then it can grow back a new one, although this takes a massive amount of energy. The spotted salamander, like other salamanders show great regenerative abilities, even being able to regenerate limbs and parts of organs. As juveniles, they spend most of their time under the leaf litter near the bottom of the pools their eggs were laid in. The larvae tend to occupy refuges in vegetation and lower their activity in the presence of predators .
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