Typical amphibian habitat

[Peter Oefinger]

Hi,
on Sunday, I visited one of my local playgrounds. The following picture shows a typical habitat in the Eifel region /Western border of Germany (dry Juniperus heathland on a limestone hill):

Here, you would expect this:

and also this:

But to my surprise, it is also a habitat for amphibians:
Bufo bufo

Ichtyosaura alpestris

Salamandra can be found here under stones and seems to be quite common here:

I also saw here Rana temporaria and Alytes. The next brook is in 1 km distance. In the adjoining forest I din't find amphibians so far...

Obviously, you don't need wet places to find amphibians

Regards
Peter

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Good to see some of your local stuff, P.!

It seems very unlikely to me that you would find Salamandra easily and numerous, and that the nearest breeding point would be at 1km... No forest ponds or anything? Not the best year to look for those right now, though...

[Peter Oefinger]

Jeroen,

It is not always that simple but sometimes - on Sunday I found five.
One correction: the distance to the brook in the valley is not 1 km but 500 meters.