CANMORE – Long-toed salamanders are particularly sensitive to disturbances and habitat loss.
So much so that a section of Dog Pond near Quarry Lake has been blocked off with a rope since 2016 to delineate an area where dogs are not allowed to go in order to protect breeding amphibians such salamanders, wood frogs, Columbia spotted frogs and boreal/western toads each spring.
However, in recent years, the rope has been cut and vandalized, meaning there’s no indication to dog owners that their pets are not meant to go beyond the buoys where amphibians are laying their eggs.
Researchers say long-toed salamanders, which are considered a species of concern in Alberta, need both aquatic and terrestrial habitats for survival, noting they are particularly vulnerable when they are breeding.
Vicki Perkins, an environmental education coordinator for Kananaskis Region West for Alberta Parks who helps oversee citizen science amphibian monitoring programs, came across the cut rope at Dog Pond a couple of weeks ago.
“My concern is that for three years, from 2020 to this current year, the buoy line has been cut and vandalized, so that there’s no longer a visual barrier to separate the breeding area from the dog area,” she said.
“On one end it had been totally cut, on the other end, it has been untied from the post… I actually ended up swimming up to my waist trying to detangle it.”
The rope was installed by the Town of Canmore around 2016 and there is also a fence along the back portion of the pond to discourage people from entering from that direction.
The main goal was to restrict dogs from the far side of the pond to protect the remaining healthy riparian habitat, important for salamanders to lay eggs.
“They are incredibly sensitive to human disturbance and habitat loss, which is what we’re seeing at Dog Pond,” Perkins said.
“You see where dogs come in there’s no vegetation, the riparian area’s been destroyed. On the back side, the habitat is still quite healthy, so that back part of Dog Pond is actually critically important.”
Perkins said the buoy line also aims to prevent dogs from stirring up water and mud at the back.
“When dogs get in the water and they stir up the bottom, it increases turbidity,” she said. “If sediment in the water gets deposited on the eggs, then it compromises the eggs’ survival.”
Mating for salamanders occurs in early spring, often before ponds are completely free of ice. Eggs take approximately three weeks to hatch and young-of-the-year salamanders emerge from ponds in late summer. However, they may not breed every year.
Perkins said this time of year is critical for reproductive success for amphibians.
“The ice leaves, they lay their eggs, and then they go through metamorphosis into their adult stage and then eventually leave the pond,” she said.
In Alberta, the long-toed salamander is classified as a species of concern due to its limited breeding range, isolated populations within their shrinking range and vulnerability to various types of habitat disturbance. Some populations are declining.
Found in several locations along the western edge of the province, long-toed salamanders typically spend most of their lives on land and travel to ponds to breed.
Breeding ponds are usually permanent, shallow and with no fish.
Recognized for the yellow or olive-green stripe from head to tip of tail – which may be broken into a series of blotches – adult salamanders can reach up to 15 centimetres in body length. This species of salamander is not found much further east than the Bow Valley.
“My hope is that if people have a little bit more awareness, that if they’re going into wetlands they could be endangering or impacting the survival of our amphibian friends,” said Perkins.
“The long-toed salamanders are a key one because of their status and their limited range within the Rocky Mountains… you don’t get them as soon as you kind of hit Bow Valley Provincial Park.”
Dog Pond is one of about 35 ponds in Kananaskis and the Bow Valley region that is part of an adopt-a-pond initiative overseen by Alberta Parks locally as a citizen science program associated with Researching Amphibian Numbers in Alberta (RANA).
Initiated in 1996, RANA aims to collect long-term data and detailed information on amphibian populations and to promote public knowledge of amphibians. The data is submitted to Fisheries and Wildlife Management Information System database.
Locally, a team of volunteers each spring monitors the ponds for salamanders, wood frogs, Columbia spotted frogs and boreal/western toads.
“This is about looking at reproductive success; which ponds are they using, are they laying eggs, how many eggs, presence and absence of species,” said Perkins, who helps oversee the program.
“We have historical data, and I know all four species have been in Dog Pond because I’ve seen them.”
In the fall, pitfall traps are set up at a pond in the Quarry Lake vicinity as part of the citizen science project.
“It looks at reproductive success, like how many species actually survived are leaving the pond. They’re counted, they’re weighed,” said Perkins.
As an environmental educator, Perkins wants to raise awareness of amphibians and their importance.
“We spend a lot of time focused on grizzly bears and wildlife corridors at a large scale, and those are critically important, but I think there’s a lack of understanding of some of these smaller little critters that we share this environment with and the need for them to access different water bodies,” she said.
“Amphibians are declining worldwide – and are the canary in the coal mine – and so having an understanding of what’s happening to their population allows us to understand at another level what’s happening in the environment.”
A PhD student at the University of Calgary Emily Baumgartner is also doing salamander research at Dog Pond and about 20 other sites in the Bow Valley and Kananaksis Country.
Minnow traps, also known as aquatics funnel traps, are currently set up at Dog Pond as part of Baumgartner’s research. Amphibians caught in the passive traps are weighed, measured and swabbed for stress hormones before being released back into the pond unharmed.
“What we know about the status of long-toed salamanders is they seem to not be doing well,” said Baumgartner.
“My goal is just to get a better idea of what that status is and hopefully get information to support conservation in the future.”
Baumgartner is also disappointed the buoy line at Dog Pond had been deliberately destroyed.
“Protecting the back edge of Dog Pond is really important because it has lots of vegetation and branches and that’s what they really need to lay their eggs on,” Baumgartner said.
“At the front of the pond there’s not much vegetation and a lot of that is traffic from the dogs going in and out of the pond, so they can really disturb the eggs and the larvae when they are first developing.”
The research project spans about 20 ponds, including Dog Pond and another seven within a three-kilometre radius in the area. The rest of the ponds are near Exshaw and along the Highway 40 corridor between Barrier Lake and Kananaskis Village.
Baumgartner said amphibians are an important part of the ecosystem.
“They are prey for fish and small mammalian predators, and they also help keep the ponds kinds of clean because their young clean up algae and other plant material,” said Baumgartner.
“The thing that I think humans care about the most is they eat pests; insects like mosquitoes and spiders to keep those populations under control.”
Baumgartner’s fieldwork started in mid-April and will continue until late August.
“I think we all really enjoy spending time in nature and respecting that nature the best we can will help us enjoy it longer,” said Baumgartner.
“We want amphibians to be able to use the habitat just like us, and that way we can live and coexist and not get in each others’ way too much.”
The province of Alberta has a long-toed salamander conservation management plan.
The 2016 plan indicates that human presence and associated disturbance is one of the biggest threats to persistence of long-toed salamander populations.
“Evidence from the Bow Valley suggests that human activity (e.g., dog walking and ATVs) in and around ponds can destroy eggs,” it states.
“As long-lived adults producing numerous young with a low probability of survival, reductions of the adult portion of the population will have long lasting effects.”
