Animal
Eastern tiger salamander
The tiger salamander is a big, shiny salamander with yellow spots. It lives under the ground and comes out on rainy nights.
The eastern tiger salamander is one of North America's biggest land salamanders: dark and shiny, with yellow or olive blotches. It spends most of its life in burrows, then walks to fishless ponds on rainy nights to lay its eggs. Its babies live in water and breathe with feathery gills.
Ambystoma tigrinum is a robust mole salamander of eastern North America, among the largest terrestrial salamanders on the continent. Adults live underground and migrate to fish-free breeding ponds in autumn and winter rains; gilled aquatic larvae transform in summer. The species was redefined when the western barred tiger salamander (A. mavortium) was split off, and some edge populations are in trouble.
Photo: Peter Paplanus, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the tiger salamander
The tiger salamander is long and shiny.
It is dark, with bright yellow spots. It has four short legs and a long tail. It starts life in a pond and grows up to live on land.
The eastern tiger salamander is an amphibian, like frogs and toads. It is dark brown or black with yellow or olive blotches on its head, body and tail. The blotches vary a lot in size and shape, from bright yellow to dull olive.
Like other amphibians, it starts life in water and grows up to live on land. Adults are usually about 18 to 21 centimeters long from nose to tail tip, longer than a grown-up's hand, and a few grow to 33 centimeters.
Ambystoma tigrinum belongs to the Ambystomatidae, the mole salamanders. COSEWIC's 2013 status report describes eastern tiger salamanders as robust and among the largest terrestrial salamanders in North America. The Missouri Department of Conservation gives an adult length of 7 to 8 1/4 inches (about 18 to 21 cm), occasionally to 13 inches (33 cm).
The ground color is black or dark brown with irregular yellow to olive blotches; the belly is dark with yellowish mottling, and 11 to 14 riblike costal grooves run down each side. Older books treated all tiger salamanders from Canada to Mexico as one species. The IUCN now follows a narrower concept, with the western barred tiger salamander (Ambystoma mavortium) as a separate species.
Quick facts
- Group
- Amphibian
- Length
- 17.8 to 21 cm
- Lifespan in the wild
- from 10 years
Where it lives
Tiger salamanders live in North America.
They live in woods, fields and wet places near ponds. They spend most of their time under the ground.
Eastern tiger salamanders live in eastern North America, from southeastern Manitoba in Canada through much of the eastern and central United States, south to northern Florida and East Texas.
They can live in woodlands, prairies, swamps and old fields, as long as there is soft soil to burrow in and a pond nearby for breeding. The pond must have no fish, because fish eat salamander eggs and larvae. Most of the time the salamanders stay hidden in burrows or under logs.
The IUCN's 2022 assessment describes a range from extreme southeastern Manitoba through Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan south to East Texas, and from Long Island south along the Atlantic coastal plain to northern Florida and southeastern Louisiana. It is absent from most of New England, the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi embayment, and in the eastern Great Plains it meets A. mavortium.
The IUCN says it can live in almost any habitat with burrowable ground and a breeding pool nearby. In Missouri it is found in woodlands, savannas, swamps, prairies and old fields near farm ponds, and it needs fishless water holes, ponds and swamps to breed. Unlike many relatives, eastern tiger salamanders dig their own burrows, though they also use those of small mammals.
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
Eastern and central North America, from extreme southeastern Manitoba through the Great Lakes states south to East Texas, and along the Atlantic coastal plain from Long Island to northern Florida and southeastern Louisiana; absent from most of New England and the Appalachian Mountains. In Canada it lives only in a few sites in southeastern Manitoba.
Places: Canada and United States.
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 United States, Mexico, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, UK and Japan.
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
Tiger salamanders eat small animals.
They eat worms, bugs, spiders, slugs and snails. They hunt at night.
Tiger salamanders are hunters. They eat almost any animal small enough to swallow: earthworms, insects, spiders, slugs and snails are common meals. A big salamander may even catch a young mouse, a small frog or a small snake.
The young larvae in the pond are hunters too. Rarely, a few larvae grow extra-wide heads and big teeth and eat other salamander larvae.
The Missouri Department of Conservation describes prey as anything small enough to swallow, from invertebrates to young mice, small frogs, snakes and other salamanders, with earthworms, insects, spiders, slugs and snails the most common foods.
Larvae are aquatic predators. COSEWIC reports that a rare cannibal morph occurs in eastern tiger salamander larvae: these larvae develop very broad, flat heads and enlarged vomerine teeth and specialize in eating other salamander larvae, even ones nearly as large as themselves.
Did you know?
Tiger salamanders dig their own homes.
Many mole salamanders borrow burrows made by other animals, but eastern tiger salamanders also dig their own.
Unlike many species in the genus, eastern tiger salamanders actively excavate burrows, though they also use crevices and burrows made by small mammals.
Built for digging
A tiger salamander digs its own home under the ground.
It has lines along its sides. Baby tiger salamanders have fluffy gills on their heads to breathe underwater.
Tiger salamanders belong to a group called mole salamanders, because they spend so much time underground. Eastern tiger salamanders dig their own burrows in soft soil, though they also use burrows made by small mammals.
Along each side are 11 to 14 riblike grooves called costal grooves. Males have slightly longer, flatter tails than females. Baby tiger salamanders, called larvae, look different: they have three pairs of feathery gills on the sides of the head and a fin along the back and tail for swimming.
As a mole salamander, A. tigrinum spends most of its life below ground; Missouri notes that it digs its own burrows, unlike many of its relatives. Missouri's field guide counts 11 to 14 riblike costal grooves along each flank.
COSEWIC describes hatchlings as silvery gray, 13 to 17 millimeters long, with three pairs of conspicuous feathery external gills and a broad dorsal fin. During metamorphosis larvae take on the adult color pattern and resorb their gills and fins. Neoteny, in which adults keep larval features, is rare in this species, reported only occasionally from Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. Animal Diversity Web notes that males are proportionally longer, with more compressed tails and longer hind legs, than females.
From pond to burrow
Tiger salamanders lay eggs in ponds.
Babies hatch with gills and swim. In summer they lose their gills and walk onto land. Then they live in burrows.
In autumn rains, adults walk to fishless ponds. They court and lay eggs in the water in late winter and early spring, mostly in March in Missouri. A female may lay up to 1,000 eggs, in small clumps.
The eggs hatch after several weeks, or 40 to 50 days if the water is cold. The gilled larvae swim and hunt all spring. Between June and August they lose their gills and fins and crawl out onto land. A tiger salamander can live 10 years or more in the wild.
Missouri's account: adults move to fishless ponds during autumn rains, and courtship and egg-laying take place in the water from February to April, peaking in March. Each female lays up to 1,000 eggs in small clumps of 23 to 110. Eggs hatch in several weeks, or 40 to 50 days in cold water; larvae transform to land-dwelling subadults from June through August. Lifespan can exceed 10 years in the wild and 20 in captivity.
Animal Diversity Web describes courtship: a male nudges a female away from rival males, then leads her forward and deposits a spermatophore, a packet of sperm, which she takes up into her cloaca. Missouri notes that the larvae are sometimes wrongly called waterdogs, a name that belongs to the mudpuppy.
Secret life at night
Tiger salamanders come out at night.
When it rains in autumn, they walk to their ponds. Sometimes people find them in basements or window wells!
Tiger salamanders are shy and seldom seen. They stay in burrows or under logs during the day and are active only at night.
Your best chance of seeing one is on a rainy autumn night, when they travel toward breeding ponds. In Missouri people often notice them near houses or crossing roads in November and December, and some turn up in wells, basements and root cellars.
Adults are nocturnal and fossorial, spending most of their time in burrows or under logs. Migration to breeding ponds is triggered by autumn rains; Missouri observers report them near homes and on roads in November and December, and people often find them in wells, basements and root cellars.
Radio-tracking in New York, cited by the IUCN, found adults on land used wooded areas and avoided grassy areas. Because each population depends on a few ponds, isolated groups are vulnerable: population viability studies cited by the IUCN found demographically isolated subpopulations highly susceptible to local extinction, especially when weather varies a lot from year to year.
Did you know?
Baby tiger salamanders breathe with fluffy gills.
A newly hatched tiger salamander is only about 13 to 17 millimeters long, with three pairs of feathery gills on its head.
Hatchlings are silvery gray, 13 to 17 mm long, with three pairs of external gills and a broad dorsal fin, all of which are resorbed at metamorphosis (COSEWIC 2013).
Helping tiger salamanders
Tiger salamanders need ponds with no fish.
People help by keeping wetlands and building small ponds for them.
Worldwide, the IUCN lists the eastern tiger salamander as Least Concern, because it lives in a big area. But in some places it is in trouble. Wetlands have been drained for farms, and fish put into ponds eat the eggs and larvae.
In Missouri it is a species of conservation concern, and in Canada a 2013 report found it at only six sites, all in Manitoba. People help by protecting wetlands and building shallow ponds with no fish.
The IUCN assessed the species as Least Concern (assessed February 2021, published 2022, population stable), citing its wide range and tolerance of some habitat change. It notes declines in the southeastern United States from deforestation and wetland loss, patchy and shrinking populations east of the Appalachians, and threats from dams and introduced salmonid fishes.
COSEWIC assessed Canada's Prairie population in Manitoba as Endangered in November 2013, known from only six sites with recent records from one, and the Carolinian population of southern Ontario as Extirpated in 2012. Missouri lists it as a species of conservation concern and stopped the sale of larval tiger salamanders as fish bait because bait animals can spread diseases to native amphibians.
IUCN Red List
How is the eastern tiger salamander doing in the wild?
- Least Concern (this animal)
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Least Concern
Not at risk of disappearing from the wild right now.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.2
Amazing facts
-
Some tiger salamanders are found in basements!
In Missouri, people often find tiger salamanders in window wells, basements and root cellars, where they wander on rainy nights.
The Missouri Department of Conservation notes that most people there see tiger salamanders in grassland or in wells, basements and root cellars, places a wandering burrower can fall into.
-
Baby tiger salamanders breathe with fluffy gills.
A newly hatched tiger salamander is only about 13 to 17 millimeters long, with three pairs of feathery gills on its head.
Hatchlings are silvery gray, 13 to 17 mm long, with three pairs of external gills and a broad dorsal fin, all of which are resorbed at metamorphosis (COSEWIC 2013).
-
Tiger salamanders dig their own homes.
Many mole salamanders borrow burrows made by other animals, but eastern tiger salamanders also dig their own.
Unlike many species in the genus, eastern tiger salamanders actively excavate burrows, though they also use crevices and burrows made by small mammals.
-
A few baby tiger salamanders grow very big heads.
Rarely, some tiger salamander larvae grow extra-wide heads and big teeth, and they eat other salamander larvae.
Rare cannibal-morph larvae with broad, flat heads and enlarged vomerine teeth prey on other larvae, including ones nearly their own size.
Words to know
- amphibian
- an animal that usually starts life in water and grows up to live on land
- larva
- the young stage of an animal that looks very different from the adult (more than one are larvae)
- gills
- body parts that take oxygen from water
- burrow
- a hole or tunnel in the ground that an animal lives in
- costal grooves
- the riblike grooves along a salamander's sides
- metamorphosis
- a big change in body shape as a young animal becomes an adult
Discovery challenge
-
Where do tiger salamanders lay their eggs?
Where do eastern tiger salamanders lay their eggs?
What kind of breeding site do eastern tiger salamanders need?
- In ponds with no fish
- In dry sand
- In holes in trees
Show the answer
In ponds with no fish
They lay eggs in ponds where no fish live.
They need fishless ponds, swamps or water holes, because fish eat their eggs and larvae.
Fishless ponds and wetlands; introduced predatory fish are a named threat.
-
What do baby tiger salamanders use to breathe in water?
What do tiger salamander larvae use to breathe underwater?
Which structures do newly hatched tiger salamander larvae breathe with?
- A blowhole
- Feathery gills
- A long snorkel
Show the answer
Feathery gills
Babies have fluffy gills on their heads.
Larvae have three pairs of feathery gills, which they lose when they move onto land.
Three pairs of external gills, resorbed at metamorphosis.
-
When can you see a tiger salamander?
When is your best chance of seeing a tiger salamander?
When are eastern tiger salamanders most likely to be seen above ground?
- At noon on a hot, dry day
- On a rainy autumn night
- On snow in midwinter
Show the answer
On a rainy autumn night
They come out on rainy nights.
They are active at night and travel to ponds in autumn rains.
They are nocturnal and migrate to breeding ponds during autumn rains.
-
What color is a tiger salamander?
What does an eastern tiger salamander's pattern look like?
Which describes the eastern tiger salamander's coloring?
- Dark with yellow or olive blotches
- Orange with black stripes
- Plain white all over
Show the answer
Dark with yellow or olive blotches
It is dark with yellow spots.
Despite the name, it has blotches, not stripes: yellow or olive on black or dark brown.
Irregular yellow to olive blotches on a black or dark brown ground; the belly is dark with yellowish mottling.
Places where you might see it
-
Watch
Country
United States
The United States is a large country in North America made of 50 states, from icy Alaska to the warm islands of Hawaii. It has the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River and Yellowstone, and about 342 million people live there.
-
Watch
Country
Canada
Canada is the second-largest country in the world, stretching across the north of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific and up into the Arctic. It has the Rocky Mountains, thousands of islands and about 42 million people, who speak English, French and many other languages.
Explore next
-
Watch
3D
Animal
Axolotl
The axolotl is a salamander from the canals and lakes of Mexico City. Unlike most amphibians, it keeps its baby features, such as feathery gills and a fin, its whole life. It can regrow lost legs and even parts of its heart, but in the wild it is critically endangered.
-
Watch
Animal
Fire salamander
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.
-
Watch
Country
United States
The United States is a large country in North America made of 50 states, from icy Alaska to the warm islands of Hawaii. It has the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River and Yellowstone, and about 342 million people live there.
-
Watch
Country
Canada
Canada is the second-largest country in the world, stretching across the north of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific and up into the Arctic. It has the Rocky Mountains, thousands of islands and about 42 million people, who speak English, French and many other languages.
-
Watch
Animal
American toad
The American toad is a common, warty toad of eastern North America, found in forests, prairies, farms and backyards. It has big poison glands behind its eyes, hunts insects and worms at night, and in spring the males sing a long, musical trill from shallow ponds, where females lay thousands of eggs in long strings.
-
Watch
Animal
Atlantic mudskipper
The Atlantic mudskipper is a fish that spends much of its time out of the water. It lives on the muddy shores of mangrove swamps and river mouths along the coast of West and Central Africa, where it skips across the mud on its strong front fins and catches food on land.
-
Watch
3D
Animal
Amazon milk frog
The Amazon milk frog is a large tree frog that lives high in the treetops of the rainforest in northeastern South America. It is active at night, has big golden eyes, and lays its eggs in pools of rainwater trapped in holes in trees, where its tadpoles grow up.
-
Watch
3D
Animal
American bullfrog
The American bullfrog is the largest true frog in North America. It lives in warm, still ponds and lakes, sits and waits for food to come close, and the males' deep 'jug-o-rum' call carries more than a kilometer. Its tadpoles can take years to turn into frogs.
For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Describe the eastern tiger salamander's body and how it suits life underground.
- Explain the salamander life cycle from eggs to gilled larvae to land-living adults.
- Explain why fishless ponds matter for breeding.
- Understand that a widespread species can still be in trouble at the edges of its range.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a salamander that lives underground come out mainly on rainy nights?
- How are tiger salamanders like frogs and toads, and how are they different?
- What could a farmer or a town do to help salamanders that need fishless ponds?
Try at home or in class
- Measure 20 centimeters with a ruler and draw a life-size tiger salamander with your own pattern of yellow blotches.
- Draw the life cycle as a circle: eggs, larva with gills, young salamander, adult in a burrow.
Key vocabulary: amphibian, larva, gills, burrow, costal grooves, metamorphosis
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))
- Ambystoma tigrinum (Eastern Tiger Salamander), IUCN Red List assessment 2022 , IUCN
- Eastern Tiger Salamander , Missouri Department of Conservation
- COSEWIC assessment and status report on the Eastern Tiger Salamander in Canada (2013) , Government of Canada, Species at Risk Public Registry
- Ambystoma tigrinum (Eastern Tiger Salamander) , Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 27, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.