Naturally Curious Program
Friday, April 13th at 6:30 p.m. I am giving a program at the Montshire Museum in Norwich, Vermont for the Ottauquechee section of the Green Mt. Club. The program is free and open to all. Hope you can come!
Spotted Salamanders Emerge From Hibernation
Under the stealth of a rainy night, subterranean-dwelling spotted salamanders migrated to their ancestral breeding pools this week. Groups, or “congresses,” of males gather, followed by females. Once a female locates a congress of males, she eventually pairs up with one of them. The pair of salamanders then engages in a courtship dance ending with the male depositing a tiny white packet of sperm called a spermatophore on the bottom of the vernal pool. If he has sufficiently stimulated the female, she picks up this packet into her cloaca, or vent, and fertilization takes place. The next morning the only sign that spotted salamanders have been and gone are the unclaimed spermatophores scattered on the leaves that lie on the pool bottom.
What Other Naturally Curious People Are Saying