The other day we we about to fill in this hole in our yard. But under some wet leaves in the hole I found two eastern red-backed salamanders. They're very common in Pennsylvania. So this isn't the first time we've found them. An interesting thing about them is that they don't have lungs so they "breathe" through their skin, and they need to keep their skin moist in order to breathe (like worms).
That one on the left is wriggling away. They like to wiggle on their sides like those sidewinder snakes to try to escape from predators. So the first time I saw one do that it was kinda startling.
The bigger one trying to escape ^ v
One of my favorite memories is a time several years ago, I was playing around in some woods with these boys we knew, and we found like twenty salamanders and put them in this cup. Then we took them inside their house and showed them to their mom. She was so scared she shrieked and jumped a mile high and asked us in a very shaky voice to please take those THINGS outside right away!!!
