Spring salamander migration is triggered by rain above forty-two degrees

Evidence

Here in upstate New York, flocks of geese mark the change of seasons, noisily making their way from winter safety to the breeding grounds of spring. Largely unseen, but equally dramatic, is the migration of salamanders from winter burrows to the vernal pools where they will meet their mates. The first warm rain of spring, a soaking rain coinciding with a temperature above forty-two degrees, sets the forest floor to rustling and stirring. En masse they rise from the hidden places, blink at the open air, and start on their way. This outpouring of animals is nearly invisible, unless you happen to be in a swamp on a rainy spring night. Salamanders move when darkness protects them from predators and rain keeps their skin moist. And they move by the thousands, like a herd of sluggish buffalo. Like the buffalo, too, their numbers diminish each year. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1284

Categorization

• SHARE: For a herpetology-minded friend — the precise rain-plus-temperature trigger for the spring salamander crawl is a lovely specific.
• QUESTION: The quiet buffalo comparison — ‘like the buffalo, too, their numbers diminish each year’ — invites chasing how road mortality compares to historical salamander abundance data.
• XREF: connects to: Rainfall is the principal extrinsic driver of vertebrate disturbance in most systems. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1110

Broader Connections

• Rainfall is the principal extrinsic driver of vertebrate disturbance in most systems. #expands (0.75) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1110