Posted by Maeve Besau on October 16, 2005

Q: I cut off about an inch of tail of a small (less than 4 inch long) little redish black salamander. I feel awful. He was hiding between two pieces of wood and one fell on him and his tail was severed.

2 questions:

1)I took him outside and he seemed to be able to crawl away into the wet leaves. What are his chances of survival?

2: His tail was attached to a piece of wood and kept wiggling and wagging for hours (8 hours later it would still move if I touched it) How can this be?

Habitat: forest/open woods

State: Maine

Habitat: forest/open woods

A: I can imagine how bad you felt when the wood severed his tail. But don't worry, it will do just fine. In fact, it will grow another tail although the new one won't be quite as nice.

Salamanders and some lizards have an adaptation that allows their tails to continue wiggling even after they've be cut away from their body. Even though not connected, nerves in the tail can "fire" and cause the muscles to move long after they're been disconnected from the body. A predator may attempt to catch a salamander and if it grabs the tail, and the body gets pulled away from the tail, the predator may be so attracted to the wiggling tail (that's now severed) that it doesn't hurt the salamander. The salamander gets away - without its tail - and the predator is left only with a very wiggly tail to eat. Although this sounds awful to humans - who would want to lose an arm to a predator - the salamander or lizard doesn't seem to mind and eventually grows a new tail. Pretty neat adaptation for survival. Thanks for asking.

John Wiessinger ( October 16, 2005)