In the forest canopies of North America, the wandering salamander, part of the genus Aneides, exhibits an ability to navigate the air. When falling or jumping from treetops, these creatures control their descent with agility. This behavior is not powered flight, like that of a bird, but a form of parachuting and gliding. This aerial maneuver allows them to move through their three-dimensional world, an unexpected skill for an animal commonly associated with damp forest floors.
How Flying Salamanders Glide
When a wandering salamander (Aneides vagrans) begins a jump or fall, it adopts a posture reminiscent of a human skydiver. It extends its long limbs and splays its large feet, creating a flattened body profile that maximizes air resistance and slows its vertical descent. In wind tunnel experiments, this parachuting posture was shown to reduce their falling speed by up to 10%.
The salamander actively maneuvers during its descent, demonstrating a high degree of control. It uses its tail and torso, making wave-like undulations to steer its body. These movements allow it to change direction and glide at an angle, rather than simply falling straight down. By adjusting its limbs and tail, the salamander can influence its trajectory, aiming for a tree trunk or a lower branch to land on.
This aerial locomotion is a deliberate and repeatable behavior. Studies show that these salamanders consistently assume this skydiving posture and can right themselves if they start to tumble. The combination of parachuting to slow down and gliding to direct their movement allows them to navigate the forest canopy. This ability is useful for an animal that may need to make a quick escape or move between trees without a dangerous trip to the ground.
Anatomical Adaptations for Gliding
The wandering salamander’s body possesses several physical traits that contribute to its gliding ability. Its body is naturally flattened, and its limbs are long relative to its torso, which increases its total surface area when extended. These features serve as the foundation for its controlled falls.
A defining feature is the salamander’s disproportionately large and fully webbed hands and feet. When the salamander splays its limbs during a fall, these large, webbed appendages act like small parachutes, catching the air and creating drag. This increased resistance slows the speed of its descent, giving it more time to maneuver.
The salamander’s long tail functions as a rudder to provide steering and stability. As it glides, it makes fine adjustments with its tail to direct its path and prevent tumbling. Scientists have also observed that these salamanders can regulate blood flow to their toe tips. This vascular control helps them grip and release surfaces with minimal energy, an important function for moving on vertical tree bark before and after a glide.
Arboreal Habitat and Behavior
The wandering salamander’s gliding ability is directly linked to its tree-dwelling lifestyle. These amphibians live high in the canopies of tall trees, including the coastal redwoods of California. In this arboreal environment, moving between branches can be a challenge, and a fall could be fatal or leave the salamander vulnerable on the forest floor.
Gliding provides an efficient solution for locomotion and escape. When startled by a predator, the salamander can leap from a branch and control its descent to land on another part of the same tree or a neighboring one. This aerial maneuver is much faster and less exposing than slowly climbing down a trunk and back up another, making it a survival strategy finely tuned to the vertical world it inhabits.
Living in the canopy, these salamanders are reclusive and primarily nocturnal. They find shelter in damp fern mats that grow on the limbs of old-growth trees. Their diet consists of canopy-dwelling invertebrates like mites, ants, and beetles. The entire life cycle of the wandering salamander plays out hundreds of feet in the air.