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Eastern tiger salamander

Ambystoma tigrinum · Salamanders and newts · Amphibians

Eastern tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum): Thick-bodied salamander 17-33 cm long with a large head and broad rounded snout. Black background with yellow (occasionally tan or olive) blotches or spots of no fixed shape, size or position. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Ambystoma tigrinum
Family
Ambystomatidae
In North America
Native
Range
Eastern and central North America; Animal Diversity Web describes the broadly defined tiger salamander as ranging from southeastern Alaska to southern Labrador and south across the US to the Mexican Plateau, a range that includes forms NatureServe now assigns to other species.
Biology

How to identify it

Thick-bodied salamander 17-33 cm long with a large head and broad rounded snout. [1][2]

Black background with yellow (occasionally tan or olive) blotches or spots of no fixed shape, size or position. [1][2]

Belly usually yellowish or olive with invading dark pigment; about 12-13 costal grooves. [1][2]

Males are proportionally longer with a more compressed tail and longer hind legs, and have a swollen vent in breeding season. [1][2]

Larvae are yellow-green or olive with dark blotches, a stripe on each side and a whitish belly. [1][2]

Compared with the western tiger salamander: Ranges meld in the Great Plains; distribution is the practical guide. [1][2]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a eastern tiger salamander before you act. Compared with the western tiger salamander: Ranges meld in the Great Plains; distribution is the practical guide.[1][2]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Found in virtually any habitat with soil suitable for burrowing and a body of water nearby for breeding; less tied to forest than other mole salamanders. [1][2]

Breeds in fishless ponds, from clear mountain ponds to temporary lowland pools. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Adults live underground most of the year in self-dug burrows, found below 60 cm; surface activity is mainly during and after rain. [1][2]

Migrates up to a few hundred metres between burrows and fishless breeding ponds, often on rainy nights; breeding is in spring in the north. [1][2]

Eats worms, snails, insects and slugs; larvae eat aquatic invertebrates and amphibian larvae. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Eastern and central North America; Animal Diversity Web describes the broadly defined tiger salamander as ranging from southeastern Alaska to southern Labrador and south across the US to the Mexican Plateau, a range that includes forms NatureServe now assigns to other species.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology