Animal
Fire salamander
The fire salamander is black with bright yellow spots. It lives in damp forests in Europe. Its bright spots tell other animals: do not eat me!
The fire salamander is a shiny black amphibian with bold yellow spots, found in cool, damp forests across much of Europe. Its colors warn predators that its skin makes bad-tasting toxins. Unlike most amphibians, the mother keeps her eggs inside her body and gives birth to live larvae in a stream.
Salamandra salamandra is a large, toxic, viviparous salamander endemic to Europe. Aposematic yellow markings advertise skin glands that secrete defensive toxins, and females give birth to advanced aquatic larvae, or in some Spanish subspecies to fully formed young on land. In 2023 the IUCN uplisted it to Vulnerable because an introduced fungal disease, Bsal, is projected to cause steep declines.
Photo: LorikNov, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the fire salamander
The fire salamander is black and yellow.
It has a long body, four short legs and a tail. Its skin is shiny. It walks slowly through the forest on damp nights.
The fire salamander is an amphibian, related to newts and frogs. It is shiny black with bright yellow or orange markings, which can be small spots, big splotches or stripes.
Adults are usually 15 to 25 centimeters long, about as long as a new pencil, and some grow past 30 centimeters. Females tend to be a little bigger than males.
Salamandra salamandra belongs to the Salamandridae, the family of true salamanders and newts. Animal Diversity Web gives a total length of 15 to 25 centimeters, with some individuals over 30, and an average mass of about 19 grams. The body is black with yellow or orange markings ranging from discrete spots to large blotches or bands; the underside is dark gray with fewer spots. The body is longer than the tail, the limbs are stout, and females are slightly larger than males.
The IUCN's 2023 assessment follows a concept in which the species is endemic to Europe; older accounts, written when more salamanders were included, also gave North Africa and the Middle East. Several subspecies are recognized, some with very small ranges in Spain.
Quick facts
- Group
- Amphibian
- Length
- 15 to 25 cm
- Lifespan in the wild
- from 14 years
Where it lives
Fire salamanders live in Europe.
They like cool, shady forests with little streams. They hide under logs, stones and soft moss.
Fire salamanders live only in Europe, across much of the center, east and south of the continent. In Spain and Portugal they live in scattered patches, and in Ukraine only in the Carpathian Mountains.
Their favorite homes are cool, wet forests of leafy trees, with shady brooks and small rivers. On the forest floor they hide in thick fallen leaves, moss, crevices and under logs, where they stay damp. They live from the lowlands up to 2,500 meters high in the mountains of central Spain.
The IUCN describes the species as endemic to Europe, present across much of central, eastern and southern Europe; in the former Soviet Union it is known only from the mountains and foothills of the Ukrainian Carpathians, and Iberian subpopulations are very fragmented. It ranges from the lowlands to 2,500 meters in central Spain. Records of Salamandra from western Anatolia need investigation and are treated as presence uncertain.
Typical habitat is wet, cool deciduous or mixed (rarely coniferous) forest with well-shaded brooks and small rivers, and in mountains also glades, forest edges, rocky slopes and dense bush. It favors microhabitats with dense leaf litter and moss, tolerates some habitat change and has even been found in gardens. Iberian populations live in upland Mediterranean-type forest.
Continent
Its habitats
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Cool, damp forests with shaded streams across much of central, eastern and southern Europe, in scattered patches in Spain and Portugal, and in Ukraine only in the Carpathians. The IUCN also lists Andorra, Liechtenstein and San Marino (too small to show) and European Türkiye; Türkiye is not shaded because shading would cover Anatolia, where its presence is uncertain.
Places: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herz., Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, France and 17 more places.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and 35 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
What it eats
Fire salamanders eat small animals.
They eat worms, slugs, beetles and other little crawling creatures. They hunt at night.
Fire salamanders are hunters of small creatures on the forest floor. They eat soft animals such as earthworms and slugs, and harder ones such as beetles, flies, millipedes and centipedes, whatever is most common where they live.
They have two ways of finding food. When there is a little light, they watch for movement and pounce on prey that moves. In the dark, they follow their nose and can find prey that is sitting still by its smell.
The diet is invertebrates, generally the most abundant prey in the local habitat: soft-bodied earthworms and slugs and harder-bodied flies, millipedes, centipedes and beetles (Animal Diversity Web). Young salamanders appear to imprint on preferred prey types in the first weeks after metamorphosis.
Hunting switches between senses. In some light, fire salamanders respond to prey movement and ignore stationary prey; in darkness, where vision is impaired, smell becomes the main cue, and they will attack motionless prey as long as they can detect its odor. In the water, the larvae eat small stream animals such as tiny shrimp-like amphipods and the young of mayflies and flies (AmphibiaWeb).
Did you know?
A fire salamander can squirt its bad-tasting juice.
When attacked, a fire salamander can squirt toxins from its skin glands toward the predator.
Instead of relying only on an attacker finding it distasteful, the fire salamander can actively spray secretions from its parotoid and dorsal glands.
Warning colors and toxic skin
The yellow spots are a warning.
They tell hungry animals: I taste bad! The salamander's skin makes a poison that keeps it safe. People should look but not touch.
Bright colors that warn predators are called warning colors. The fire salamander's yellow spots tell birds and other hunters that it is not good to eat.
The warning is real. Two large glands behind the eyes, called parotoid glands, and rows of smaller glands along the back make toxins that affect the nerves of a predator. A fire salamander can even squirt these chemicals at an attacker. Like all wild amphibians, fire salamanders are best watched and left alone.
The fire salamander's main defense is chemical. Large parotoid glands behind the eyes and rows of poison glands running lengthwise down the body secrete neurotoxins, and its yellow-on-black aposematic coloring advertises them (Animal Diversity Web). Rather than relying on an attacker to give up after a bad-tasting bite, the salamander can actively spray secretions toward a predator.
Skin also matters for its biggest modern threat: chytrid fungi infect amphibian skin. The IUCN notes that Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) causes disease in salamanders and newts and has been shown to be highly pathogenic to most European salamanders and newts. AmphibiaWeb adds a twist on the warning signal: a 2019 study of one German population found that the amount of yellow on a salamander did not match the amount of toxin in its skin.
Babies born in a stream
Most amphibians lay eggs. Fire salamanders are different!
The eggs stay inside the mother. In spring she puts her babies into a stream. The babies swim and eat tiny water bugs. Later they grow up and walk onto land.
Fire salamanders mate on land, often in summer. The mother can store the male's sperm for a long time, and the eggs grow inside her body over the winter.
In spring she goes to a shallow brook or pond and gives birth to live larvae. The larvae feed in the water for several months, and many spend a winter there before they change into small land salamanders. In a few places in Spain, mothers even give birth on land to two to eight fully formed little salamanders. Fire salamanders may live more than 14 years.
Fertilization is internal: the male deposits a spermatophore, and the female can store sperm for some time before ovulation. In European populations this links a summer mating peak to the birth of larvae the following spring, after winter dormancy (Animal Diversity Web). The species is viviparous: embryos develop inside the mother, nourished by yolk, and are born as advanced aquatic larvae.
According to the IUCN, larvae complete metamorphosis in streams, ponds and still waters (AmphibiaWeb adds that development takes several months and many larvae overwinter before metamorphosing), while the subspecies S. s. bernardezi and S. s. fastuosa may give birth to two to eight fully metamorphosed young on land. Generation length is estimated at 7 to 15 years; individuals may live more than 14 years in the wild and 24 in captivity, so a female can breed many times.
A homebody of the forest
Fire salamanders are shy.
They hide in the day and come out on mild, damp nights. In winter they rest in safe hiding places.
Fire salamanders are shy and spend the day hidden in shady cracks or under logs. They come out mainly on mild nights, and they rest through the coldest part of the winter.
They are real homebodies. A fire salamander often stays in the same small area for many years. In one study, salamanders came back to the same cave to spend the winter for up to 20 years, finding their way by following landmarks.
Animal Diversity Web describes a shy, solitary, nocturnal species, active mainly on mild nights and inactive during temperature extremes such as the European winter. Individuals show strong site fidelity, keeping the same home range for many years and revisiting the same overwintering sites; one experiment found individuals returning to the same cave to hibernate for up to 20 years.
Such homing requires orientation: fire salamanders have been seen following paths with landmarks, and some experiments suggest visual cues matter, though it is not known whether sight or smell matters more. Animal Diversity Web notes that this loyalty to home ranges and winter sites makes habitat fragmentation a potential problem. AmphibiaWeb reports that males sometimes fight over a female during mating on land.
Did you know?
Fire salamander babies are born, not hatched from eggs in a pond.
Most amphibians lay eggs, but a fire salamander mother keeps her eggs inside her body and gives birth to swimming larvae.
Fire salamanders are viviparous: yolk-fed embryos develop inside the female, who releases advanced larvae into water, or in some Spanish subspecies fully metamorphosed young on land.
Protecting fire salamanders
Fire salamanders need clean, shady forests and streams.
A new sickness is making some of them ill. Scientists are working to stop it from spreading.
In 2023 the IUCN listed the fire salamander as Vulnerable, which means it is at risk. The biggest worry is a fungus called Bsal that makes salamanders sick. It came from Asia, probably with salamanders sold as pets, and has been found in the wild in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Spain.
Fire salamanders also lose homes when forests are cut, streams are polluted or small dams are built, and fish and crayfish put into streams eat the larvae. People help by protecting forests and streams, checking for the disease and teaching others how to stop it from spreading.
The IUCN assessed the species in July 2022 (published 2023) as Vulnerable under criterion A3ce, both globally and for Europe and the EU27, up from Least Concern. Modeling Bsal spreading 10 to 20 kilometers a year from current outbreaks over three generations (21 to 45 years) affects 15 to 70 percent of the range; with ongoing habitat loss, a decline of 30 to 49 percent is projected. A severe decline has already been reported in the Netherlands.
Other threats named by the IUCN include small run-of-river hydropower in the Balkans, unsympathetic forestry, agrochemical pollution of breeding sites, collection for the pet trade, introduced salmonid fish and red swamp crayfish, fragmentation and local road deaths. Bsal is listed under the EU Animal Health Law (Regulation 2018/1882), but the IUCN notes that mitigation is mostly local, and it calls for an EU-wide action plan.
IUCN Red List
How is the fire salamander doing in the wild?
- Least Concern
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable (this animal)
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Vulnerable
At high risk of disappearing from the wild.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2025.2
Amazing facts
-
Fire salamander babies are born, not hatched from eggs in a pond.
Most amphibians lay eggs, but a fire salamander mother keeps her eggs inside her body and gives birth to swimming larvae.
Fire salamanders are viviparous: yolk-fed embryos develop inside the female, who releases advanced larvae into water, or in some Spanish subspecies fully metamorphosed young on land.
-
A fire salamander can squirt its bad-tasting juice.
When attacked, a fire salamander can squirt toxins from its skin glands toward the predator.
Instead of relying only on an attacker finding it distasteful, the fire salamander can actively spray secretions from its parotoid and dorsal glands.
-
Some fire salamanders go back to the same cave every winter.
In one study, fire salamanders returned to the same cave to spend the winter for up to 20 years.
Long-term site fidelity is strong: individuals have returned to the same hibernation cave for up to 20 years, apparently using landmarks along their routes.
-
Fire salamanders hunt with their noses in the dark.
In the dark, fire salamanders find food by smell, even prey that is sitting perfectly still.
Fire salamanders switch from movement-triggered visual hunting in some light to olfaction in darkness, attacking stationary prey they can smell.
Words to know
- amphibian
- an animal that usually starts life in water and grows up to live on land
- warning colors
- bright colors that tell predators an animal is dangerous or tastes bad
- toxin
- a poison made by a living thing
- parotoid gland
- a big gland behind the eye of some amphibians that makes toxins
- larva
- the young stage of an animal that looks very different from the adult
- viviparous
- giving birth to live young instead of laying eggs
Discovery challenge
-
What do the yellow spots tell other animals?
What message do the fire salamander's yellow spots send to predators?
What is the job of the fire salamander's yellow-on-black pattern?
- I taste bad, leave me alone
- I am hungry
- I am asleep
Show the answer
I taste bad, leave me alone
Bright spots warn that the salamander tastes bad.
They are warning colors: the skin glands make toxins, and predators learn to avoid the pattern.
Aposematic coloring that advertises the neurotoxic secretions of its skin glands.
-
Where does a mother fire salamander put her babies?
Where does a mother fire salamander usually give birth to her larvae?
Where do most female fire salamanders release their young?
- In a stream or pond
- In a bird's nest
- In desert sand
Show the answer
In a stream or pond
The babies are born into a stream or pond, where they swim.
She gives birth to live larvae in streams or ponds; they swim and feed there until they change into land salamanders.
Advanced aquatic larvae are released into streams, ponds or still water; only a few Spanish subspecies give birth on land.
-
When do fire salamanders come out?
When are fire salamanders most active?
When are adult fire salamanders mainly active?
- At midday in hot sun
- On mild nights
- Only when it snows
Show the answer
On mild nights
They hide in the day and come out on mild nights.
They spend the day hidden and come out mainly on mild nights.
Nocturnal, active on mild nights and inactive during temperature extremes such as winter.
-
Where do fire salamanders live?
On which continent do fire salamanders live in the wild?
According to the IUCN, where is the fire salamander native?
- Australia
- Antarctica
- Europe
Show the answer
Europe
Fire salamanders live in Europe.
They live only in Europe, in cool, damp forests.
The IUCN treats the species as endemic to Europe, from Iberia to the Ukrainian Carpathians.
Places where you might see it
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Watch
Country
Germany
Germany is a country in north-central Europe. The land rises from flat plains by the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to forested hills and, in the far south, the Alps. About 83.5 million people (2025) live there, and its capital is Berlin.
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Watch
Country
Spain
Spain covers most of the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. Its middle is a high, flat plateau, the Pyrenees mountains stand between it and France, and almost 50 million people live there, with Madrid as the capital.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Explain warning colors and how the fire salamander's skin glands protect it.
- Describe how fire salamanders give birth to live larvae instead of laying eggs.
- Describe the cool, damp forest habitat and the salamander's loyalty to its home range.
- Understand how an introduced disease can threaten a widespread species.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a slow animal benefit from bright colors instead of camouflage?
- How could one person's pet salamanders carry a disease to wild salamanders far away?
- Why is it a good rule to look at wild amphibians but not pick them up?
Try at home or in class
- Draw two salamanders, one camouflaged and one with warning colors, and talk about which a predator would notice first and why.
- Measure 20 centimeters with a ruler and draw a life-size fire salamander with its yellow pattern.
Key vocabulary: amphibian, warning colors, toxin, parotoid gland, larva, viviparous
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
- Salamandra salamandra (Fire Salamander), IUCN Red List assessment 2023 , IUCN
- Salamandra salamandra (Fire Salamander) , Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
- Salamandra salamandra (archived 11 January 2021) , AmphibiaWeb, University of California, Berkeley
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 28, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.