The tiger salamander is one of the largest salamanders in North America; and if you find one, and insist on feeding it an earthworm, you may find he’ll bite the hand that feeds him.
Y’know, for the hundreds of hours of my boyhood that I spent looking for salamanders, I never once found a tiger salamander, although they’re supposed to be not that uncommon in New Jersey. Mostly I found just those little redbacks; a tiger must be as big as 20 of those guys.
So I’ve never been bitten by a salamander, but I’ll bet the tiger’s bite packs a wallop. It just might be worth getting bitten if you can have a close encounter with one of these impressive critters. Like, how bad can it be?
During my childhood, at times we would go camping in heavily wooded central Wisconsin. We camped near a shallow lake, surrounded by a peat bog and deep forest, and always saw salamanders, but I never saw a tiger salamander.
While camping one warm misty summer evening, with light rain, the Night of the Salamanders took place. Never happened before or after. Thousands came out of hiding and began swarming everywhere, you had to be careful where you stepped. Two young girls collected buckets of them (not sure what they planned to do with them). As we sat around the campfire, people had to lift their legs to let those critters pass, as they scurried to their doom into the fire. We had to make sure our tents were zipped tightly. A number of campers didn’t and had many unwanted guests visit them that night. I think I have an idea for a monster movie…
Here in NJ some of our roads have “Salamander Crossing” signs. But they never cross when I’m around.