Endangered
Barton Springs salamander
Eurycea sosorum
The Barton Springs salamander is an endangered lungless salamander.
Appearance
Barton Springs salamanders grow to approximately 6.4 centimetres (2.5 in) in total length and have mottled coloration varying from darkish purple to light yellow on their dorsal side. The variation in coloring is largely due to the presence or lack of melanophores, iridophores, and pigment gaps. The ventral side of the salamander is either a cream or translucent color that allows stomach contents and the presence of eggs to be visible.
Range and habitat
The Barton Springs salamander prefers clear water and are typically found near openings of springs. The springs in that these salamanders inhabit flow year-round and retain a constant temperature of around 20 °C (68 °F). It is endemic to Texas, United States.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
It appears that they feed primarily on small aquatic crustaceans and planarian flatworms (Dugesia sp.), but can supplement their diet with other items, such as earthworms, snails, leeches, and insect larvae.
In crisis
The Barton Springs salamander is an endangered lungless salamander. Eliza Springs, located within Barton Springs, has one of the largest populations of Barton Springs salamanders. It was put on the federal List of Threatened and Endangered Species in 1997 and was last assessed in 2004 by the IUCN Red List.
Under the IUCN Red List, the Barton Springs salamander is listed as vulnerable while in federally and within the state of Texas the species is considered endangered. As a result, the City of Austin applied for and was issued an Incidental Take Permit under Section 10(a)(1)(b) of the Endangered Species Act by the U.S.
Salamanders disappear when seeps are capped, caves are disturbed, or a pathogen moves through a mountain range.
Barton Springs salamander is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Barton Springs salamander, Wikidata item Q33181. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
