'Craziest thing I've ever seen': Elusive salamanders making shocking mass appearance in Edmonton area
CTV
Due to the secretive subterranean lives of tiger salamanders, many Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one. Still, lucky wasn't the word leaping to mind for one local woman when thousands of the normally-elusive amphibians recently descended on her childhood home.
Due to the secretive subterranean lives of tiger salamanders, many Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one.
That said – lucky wasn't the word leaping to mind for one local woman when thousands of the normally-elusive amphibians recently descended on her childhood home.
"It was like something you would read in the end times,"Chelsea Brown said. "It was the craziest thing I've ever seen."
Western tiger salamanders, named for their spots and stripes, are found in most of central and southern Alberta.
Breeding in the spring, the salamanders lay their eggs in local bodies of water.
Once hatched, the legless larvae – similar to a tadpole – feed on invertebrates like mosquito and other insect larvae.
Then, in August, they complete their metamorphosis and emerge as four-legged replicas of their parents.
