and laterThis is the most easily found of the plethodon salamanders, and occurs in relatively large numbers within restricted areas of the proper habitat.
At least 200 clouded salis in just one county! The entire naherp.com database only has 26 records of the species across its entire range. How did this guy find so many?Of at least 200 specimens of Aneides ferreus that I have seen in the course of this study
Okay, should be pointed out that ripping apart habitat is a bad idea nowadays with the extremely limited amount of such habitat available anymore. In many places it is completely illegal. Still, those densities are incredible. The author stated that over 90% of the Clouded Salamanders he saw were found in "open grass or bracken areas within or at the edge of fir forest, containing fire-charred or partl decayed fir logs and/or fir stumps." So why don't we find so many Cloudeds today? Is it that we just aren't ripping apart stumps, or is the problem that 4' diameter fir stumps aren't lying around the ground in the frequencies that they used to 65+ years ago?The large logs and the large stump are fire charred on the exterior, whereas the smaller stumps are not, but are the remnants of lumbering operations. The age of this set of conditions is not known, but the large logs are much older than the lumbered stumps. The fire-charred exterior of these logs apparently plays a large part in maintaining a certain ideal condition within the log. This exterior is very hard, and sheds most of the rain falling upon it, but on the other hand keeps down evaporation and drying during the summer months. Furthermore, this surface is quite resistant to insect workings and its rigidity helps to hold the softer inner wood in position. The net result is a habitat that is moist but not soggy or wet in the winter and one that remains moist, at least inwardly, during the summer.
When one tears into such a log, the heart wood is found to be decayed to the point where it can be torn out easily with the proper instrument, but yet is firm enough to retain its shape without crumbling. This inner wood will be found to be riddled with cracks and tunnels, and will support a tremendously varied invertebrate fauna. It is supposed that certain of the invertebrates produce the tunnels in the wood, but there is some evidence (see under food habits) that the Aneides may at least enlarge these. Whatever animal produces them, these tunnels are utilized by the salamanders to reach even the innermost sections of the logs. From one of these logs, on March 19, 1942, at least 25 Aneides of all sizes were collected in less than an hour. This log measured approximately 4 feet in diameter by 12 feet in length, and only a small proportion of it was torn away. In another log (approximately 4 feet by 28 feet), in this same locality, 21 Aneides, and 2 clusters of the eggs of this species were taken on July 7, 1946. To collect these, only about 10 feet of the length of the log was torn into along its southern exposure.
I should note that he did find 25 cloudeds under surface cover, but most of those were found on very wet days under surface cover near the same old-fir-logs-and-stumps situation.