Austrian experts have attempted an unusual rescue operation: they successfully nursed the offspring of a female fire salamander that had an accident on the road. 19 of the black and yellow baby amphibians were recently released, as the Museum of Lower Austria in St. Pölten announced.
The female was run over by a tractor in the Brand-Laaben community last November. Local residents found the seriously injured animal and the first released larvae and brought them to a private wildlife sanctuary. There more salamander babies were helped into the world. A total of 31 hatchlings were then taken to the museum, which runs a small zoo for local species and therefore has experience in keeping fire salamanders.
The rescued small amphibians were raised individually “because they tend to cannibalism as young animals,” said Florian Müller from the Lower Austria Museum of the German Press Agency. A few weeks ago, the 19 surviving animals were released into nature in the Vienna Woods Biosphere Reserve. “If you come across a fire salamander on a walk in the Vienna Woods in the next few years, who knows, maybe it’s one of these,” the museum said.
Fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra) are distributed in several parts of Europe. In Austria they are on the early warning level for endangered species because of the threat to their humid forest habitats. Like many other amphibians, fire salamanders are also often plagued by a dangerous main fungus: Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans causes tumors and can kill salamanders within a few days. The fungus was probably introduced from Asia and has been spreading in Europe for several years.
