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Mole salamander

Ambystoma talpoideum · Salamanders and newts · Amphibians

Mole salamander (Ambystoma talpoideum): Short, stout body with a broad, disproportionately large head; 8-12 cm long. Terrestrial adults are grey to black, sometimes with clusters of small bluish-white flecks on the back and tail and often a white edge along the top of the tail. 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 talpoideum
Family
Ambystomatidae
In North America
Native
Range
NatureServe lists it in the southeastern and south-central US (Virginia and the Carolinas to Florida, west to Texas and north to Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky); not recorded for Canada.
Biology

How to identify it

Short, stout body with a broad, disproportionately large head; 8-12 cm long. [1][2]

Terrestrial adults are grey to black, sometimes with clusters of small bluish-white flecks on the back and tail and often a white edge along the top of the tail. [1][2]

Paedomorphic (gilled, aquatic) adults keep larval form, with light and dark belly stripes and distinctive yellow ventral stripes that remain as remnants for a time after metamorphosis. [1][2]

Facultatively paedomorphic: both terrestrial and aquatic adult forms occur. [1][2]

Field knowledge

Where it lives

Usually near breeding ponds in pine flatwoods, floodplains and bottomland hardwood forest; terrestrial adults live in burrows or under logs in damp places; breeds in shallow fishless ponds with abundant vegetation; paedomorphs occur in permanent ponds. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Active at any hour but mostly at night; moves on moist, cool nights; relatively sedentary near its natal pond or the forest around it (adults average about 170 m to breeding ponds). [1][2]

Breeds in winter in the south and fall in the north; adults leave breeding ponds by mid-May (March in South Carolina). [1][2]

Adults eat earthworms, arthropods, aquatic insects and tadpoles; larvae eat zooplankton and sometimes other Ambystoma 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

NatureServe lists it in the southeastern and south-central US (Virginia and the Carolinas to Florida, west to Texas and north to Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky); not recorded for Canada.

Biology

Sources

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

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology