- I'm Coyote Peterson. - And I'm Pup Peterson. - And today we're in the
forest of Southeast Ohio, looking for salamanders. Wow, that's a big one. Alright, grab him! Oh! (fast-paced exciting
instrumental music) The warm days of late summer
are the perfect time to head into the forest with your
family to look for animals, and on this adventure, Pup Peterson and I are
heading into the wilds of Wayne National
Forest to search out one of the friendliest little
amphibians you could ever hope to encounter. The salamander. Ohio is home to around 20
different salamander species, and if you head out into
any forest creek bed, there's a good chance
you will find some. Just a simple tupperware
container like that is perfect for
collecting salamanders. You wanna care it? - Yep! - Okay, let's head out
there and see how many different salamander species
we can come across today. Come on. The forest was alive
with creatures, from brilliantly colored
millipedes and a friendly green frog to one
cranky crayfish. This guy has got me
with both pincers, right on the inside
edge of my finger. Gah! Ooh, jeez, oh! Hold on, I'll put him
back in the water. Ah, I think he just broke skin. Okay, okay, you go back,
you go back into the water. I've been bitten, stung, and
chomped by many creatures, but this crayfish
was the real deal. - [Pup] Can I see? - Yeah, look at that. - Oh, jeez! - He got me good, didn't he? When searching for
animals in the forest, you just need to
know where to look. And when it comes
to salamanders, it's all about flipping rocks. From big rocks, to small rocks, pretty much any rock
has the potential of being the hiding
spot of a salamander. Now you always wanna put
the rocks very gently right back where they came from, and do you know why that is? - Why? - Because that's where
the salamanders live, and in case they're
out hunting right now, we want them to come
back to their homes and have their homes
be intact, right? - Yeah. - So we wanna be real careful
not to step on the flat rocks, and always put the rocks right
back where they came from. Alright, let's check these ones. Once you get started, all it
takes is a little patience, and a whole lot of searching. Whatever you do, don't give up, and you're guaranteed
to have some luck. I've got a good feeling
about this one, ready? - [Pup] Yeah. - Oh, there's one.
- [Pup] There's one! - Got him! That's like 15 salamanders
at this point, isn't it? - [Pup] Yeah. - Keep going. My motto is, leave no stone
unturned or log unrolled, because you never know what you are going to come across next. - Okay, let's look
under this log here. - [Coyote] Alright hold
on, go slow, go slow. Alright, go ahead and roll
this back very gently. Oh, right there, do you see it? - [Pup] Yeah! - [Coyote] Do you
know what that is? - [Pup] A Red Eft. - [Coyote] Grab it. - [Pup] Got him. - Oh nice! Nice, that's our first
Red Eft of the day! Whoa, great catch! Now where did you
find this newt? - [Pup] Under a log. - [Coyote] That's right, and
it was much drier under there than it is in the
creek bed, right? - [Pup] Yeah. - [Coyote] And that's
because if you notice, the newt has very
dry skin, doesn't it? - [Pup] Yeah. - [Coyote] He's very cute, too. - [Pup] Yeah. - Now the salamanders
require much more moisture to survive than the newts do. That's why you'll often find
the newts near the creek but not actually in the creek. Should we hang out
with him for a minute? - [Pup] Yeah. - [Coyote] Yeah,
let's get him up close with our other salamanders. With one container
full of salamanders, and the other with some
adorable little newts, it was time to get up
close with our catch. Wow, what an awesome adventure. I would say that we definitely
cleaned up on catching salamanders today because
we have an entire container filled with those
slimy little buggers. Alright, let's open
this up and take a look. Holy cow, look at all
those salamanders! Now, we caught two
different species today. Most of them are Two
Lined Salamanders, and then we've caught one
nice big Dusky Salamander. He's kinda cute and
chunky, isn't he? Now what do you notice about
the Two Lined Salamanders? What color are they? - [Pup] They're
black and yellow. - [Coyote] And what do you
notice about the black? What do we have running
down the length of the body? - [Pup] Two black stripes. - That's right, now that is
the way to easily identify the Two Lined Salamander, is that it has two
distinct black stripes that run down the
length of the body. Now Pup, put your finger
in there and just do this. What does that
feel like in there? - [Pup] Slime. - Because Salamanders
are extremely slimy. And what do we know
about most amphibians? They need to keep
their bodies what? - Wet. - That's right, because these
salamanders are out here living in creeks
underneath rocks, they're constantly
staying in the water, which keeps their bodies moist. So let's show everybody
at home how we actually caught these salamanders, because it was pretty
tough to get on camera because you gotta
really get your hands down there in the muck. Let me try to get one of
these little slippery guys in my hand, alright, now show everybody at home, the method that you use
to catch a salamander. - [Pup] So what I did was I put
one hand in front like this, and then another hand like this, and I kind of like
scooped the salamander up into my hand. - [Coyote] Boom,
that's how you get 'em! - [Pup] Yeah. - And that's how you get it. Now what you wanna
do is have a gentle yet firm hold on the salamander. You wanna make sure that
your hands are moist so that you don't actually
suck any of the moisture out of their skin
and into your hands. So, in total we caught
20 salamanders today, but that's not the only thing
we caught out there, is it? What do you got in that
container over there? - Red Efts. - Awesome, let's open up
this container and look at another one of the
salamander species that we have here in Southeastern Ohio. - The baby one's so cute! - [Coyote] Now what do you see
on the body of the Red Eft? What do you see there? - [Pup] There are
actually spots. - [Coyote] That's right,
it's got very spotty skin. Now as these Red Efts
get bigger and older, the red color actually
begins to disappear and they turn brown just like
the one you have in your hand. Red Spotted Newts have
three distinct life stages. Larva or tadpole, eft stage like you see here, and aquatic adult. And that's what makes
them different from other salamanders species is
that they spend most of their lives in a
drier environment, while salamanders are
sticking to the creek beds. Pup, how cool was that today? Being out in the creeks
of Southeastern Ohio, one of our favorite spots to
come look for salamanders. But I wanna know about
the creatures that live right in your backyard. Tell me about them in the
comment section below, and you never know, on the
next Backyard Adventure, I might be out there with you. I'm Coyote Peterson. - And I'm Pup Peterson. - Be brave, stay wild! We'll see ya on
the next adventure. Taking Pup into the creeks
to look for salamanders was a great end to our summer. These adorable little amphibians
are the perfect creatures to get your kids up close with. Just make sure you always
release them back into the wild.
