One of the reasons of our vacations in the French Pyrénées was to observe in situ a wonderful subspecies of fire salamander that is living in the surrounding montane forests. Called Salamandra salamandra fastuosa -the Yellow Striped Fire Salamander, it can be distinguished by the widespread S. s. terrestris by a rounder stout, a smaller size (usually 15 cm long), two uninterrupted yellow stripes along each part of the body, an overall more yellow robe and a tendency to viviparity: females either lay advanced larvaes with small gills or fully developed small salamanders. Habitat wise, S. s. fastuosa is similar to S. s. terrestris, the only Salamandra subspecies I observed so far in the wild. Therefore, it occurs near streams or a couple of hundreds meters from it.
This is a mountain stream like so many others here in the Pyrénées. It is clearly a suitable habitat.
Before the search for the magnificent fastuosa begins, I enjoy the place and the moment, a 'Miyasaki spot' like my children like to say when they stumble onto such fairy tale place.
Quite quickly though, I start the 'hunt'. I search through the vegetation, beneath the trees.
Beds made of moss, stones, logs, stumps, dead trunks...
Dead trunks, stumps, logs, stones, beds made of moss...
I turn them all and replace everything back.
Until...
A true natural wonder.
I can't help to be amazed each time I face one of these fire salamanders. Their robe make them look like some exotic animals as if, to my eyes at least, they do not belong to our northern latitudes. S. s. fastuosa, especially, with its predominant vibrant yellow pattern strikes my imagination and my kids'.
With the children, we found a dozen specimens during our walk in the forest. We gathered some of them in the picture below to compare their individual coloration. They are all different.
S. s. fastuosa is arguably one of my very favourites Salamandra (sub)species and, hopefully, I can travel in the near future to other locations to see its relatives. Following the geographical distribution of the genus Salamandra could moreover bring us to some very nice countries (Italia, Spain, Portugal, Turkey...). :-)
We've been waiting for months to see this 'kawai' animal in its habitat so we all enjoyed this particular moment. 'Pokemon Go' can wait, we found happiness and cuteness far from any smartphones. ;-)