Shelley spotted this little guy on the way back from the campground washrooms. She came and got me and we almost didn't find it again. When she described it as "like a lizard, but slow", I figured it might be a salamander or newt. This is a kind I haven't seen before. It's a lungless Ensatina salamander which means it gets oxygen by absorbing it through its skin. It was early morning and quite dark in the forest so I used my headlamp to get a bit more light. It was about 8 cm (3 in) long. Unusually for amphibians, their eggs hatch directly into salamanders, skipping an aquatic stage.
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