The race is on to save Quebec's elusive, rare spring salamander

Conservation groups in Quebec are trying to save a rare, endangered salamander before it's too late. But the first step is finding the reclusive amphibian.

"It's hours and hours of flipping rocks and then finally we find one. There's always that joy," said Laura Molina as she searched a cold creek near Saint-Ferdinand, Que., about 200 kilometres east of Montreal.

Molina is a project manager with Le Groupe de concertation des bassins versants de la zone Bécancour (GROBEC), a group that strives to protect the Bécancour river watersheds. Backed by the Quebec and federal governments, she has been counting the spring salamander population in the Chaudière-Appalaches region for about two weeks.

The colourful species can grow up to 23 centimetres long. It's one of the largest salamanders without lungs or gills. It breathes through its skin, and can live up to 10 years.

Environment and Climate Change Canada published a spring salamander management plan in 2013, describing it as a large stream salamander found in the Appalachian Mountains. It is at the northern limit of its range in southeastern Quebec.

The species is also known to have lived in the Niagara Peninsula in Ontario, but has not been observed there since 1877.

It lives in small, clear, cool, well-oxygenated streams with rocky bottoms and no fish — habitat requirements that are a limiting factor for the species, the report says.

Under provincial and federal law, the spring salamander is considered vulnerable and endangered.

They are so rare, the province doesn't even know how many live in Quebec. And as Molina points out, finding one takes persistence, knowing where to look and the perfect temperature.

"It's very sensitive to temperature. It has to be cold. If it's too hot, they don't come out and they actually burrow down in the ground because their skin dries and they can't breathe," she said.

A study conducted about 10 years ago identified locations where the salamanders live, and that's where Molina's group is searching.

Along with counting this species, the group is counting other salamanders and looking for anything that may threaten the amphibian's environment.

The group says 94 per cent of spring salamander habitats are on private land.

"It's very special to find species that are rare," Molina said. "And especially knowing that despite all the changes in the environment. I think it says something about the region, about how the region is taking care of the streams as well."