Fire salamander

The forest wizard in yellow spots

The salamander wears black with bright yellow spots — a warning that says 'don't eat me, I'm poisonous!'. Long ago people thought it lived in fire, because it would crawl out of logs thrown on the campfire. It lives in the damp forests of Europe and comes out at night after rain. Like a frog it is an amphibian, but with a tail, and it walks slowly.

The fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) is a tailed amphibian (15–25 cm) of Europe's damp deciduous forests, near streams and springs. Skin glands secrete the alkaloid samandarin — toxic to predators and irritating to human skin; the yellow spots are warning (aposematic) colours. The name comes from a medieval legend: it crawled out of damp logs thrown onto fires. Active at night and in rain; eats worms, slugs and insects. Unlike most amphibians it lays no eggs — the female gives birth to 10–30 live larvae in a cold stream. It lives over 20 years. Since the 2010s the Bsal fungus has been wiping out populations in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Fun facts

• A salamander lays no eggs — it gives birth to live larvae in a stream.
• Ancient people believed it was born in fire.
• A salamander lives over 20 years, sometimes 50.