What type of salamanders live in the state of Alabama?
Answer Dear bw – Although I cannot positively identify your critters, I can tell you that there are salamanders/efts in Alabama that would match your descriptions. Excluding exclusively aquatic species such as mudpuppies, hellbenders and sirens, there are at least 29 species of salamanders reported from Alabama; see http://www.ag.auburn.edu/users/cguyer/herplist.htm for a complete listing. That aside, most, if not all, salamanders have defensive secretions that can be toxic and could cause the symptoms exhibited by your dogs, and one species occurring on the west coast has been known to cause human fatalities when ingested (see http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/toxin2.shtml). The more toxic salamanders usually display warning (aposematic) coloration of some kind. Supposedly, predators learn to associate these bright colors/patterns with danger; your dogs may be a little slow on the uptake here. If you cannot prevent your dogs from encountering salamanders when they are out and about,
