Endangered Salamanders in Texas

	Texas blind salamander. Photo by Glenn Longly/USFWS

A pipe replacement in San Marcos Springs (formerly Aquarena Springs) in the San Marcos River in Texas provides an opportunity to collect highly endangered Texas blind salamanders. The salamander spends its life in complete darkness underground in the water-filled limestone caves of the Edwards Aquifer near San Marcos—unless it gets too close to a natural spring. Then the force of the spring shoots the salamander out of the groundwater and into the river where it often becomes catfish food. The pipe provides a way to catch salamanders in a net at the end of the pipe, instead of losing these rare salamanders to hungry fish.

The aquifer under Diversion Springs holds the only known natural population of the Texas blind salamander. Since the salamander spends its life in complete darkness, nature has decided it does not need any eyes. Instead this subterranean salamander has two black dots where others would have eyes. Its skin is white and translucent. The captured salamanders will begin a new life as part of a breeding population at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s San Marcos National Fish Hatchery and Technological Center. The Center is the only facility that rears Texas blind salamanders to augment the natural, but very limited, population.

Contact: Elizabeth Slown, 505-248-6909.