Breathless: Celebrating Salamanders and Their Small, Wild Spaces

Watch on YouTube.

The Coast to Cascades Bird Alliance is branching out again. This time we are going into the dark, cold, and damp world with Tom Titus as our guide.

His presentation will encompass four breathtaking stories. Following a brief introduction to the fascinating biology of amphibians, he’ll start with the Oregon Slender Salamander. These lungless salamanders, found on the forested west flank of the Cascades, are the only amphibian who respects state lines. Plus, they are cute as buttons—an obvious candidate for Oregon State Amphibian.

In the second narrative we’ll explore the fascinating world of Northwestern Salamanders. Looking like small space monsters, they wander out of Cascadian woodlands during late winter rainstorms to mate in quiet water and lay seemingly supernatural egg masses over twice the diameter of the female’s body. Inside each egg capsule is a species-specific alga that has arrived there by mysterious means and developed an unbelievably symbiotic relationship with Northwestern Salamanders.

A group of four species endemic to the mountains of the Pacific Northwest are up next—Torrent Salamanders. They inhabit cold seeps, springs, and small streams, are nearly as cute as Oregon Slender Salamanders, and have nearly lost their lungs. We’ll travel across two states in search of all four species. You’ll also get to hear the first poem (probably) ever inspired by Torrent Salamanders!

We’ll finish the program with a toxic tale of the Rough-skinned Newt. How and why have they become so poisonous? Learn what a group of kids working with a local environmental education organization has taught us about the Rough-skinned Newts inhabiting Eugene’s Tugman Park, along with the value of habitat restoration on a local level.

Tom Titus is an amphibian biologist, geneticist, forager, father, grandfather, and free-range philosopher. He somehow corralled divergent paths in music, education, and biology into a fascination for salamanders that began as an undergraduate at Western Oregon State University.

Tom attended graduate school at the University of Kansas where he completed his Ph.D. working on the evolutionary genetics of lungless salamanders. His postdoctoral research focused on the evolution of newts and their relatives. He eventually returned to his home state and a career at the University of Oregon. Tom designed the course “Amphibians and Reptiles of Oregon,” which he taught for 25 years.

After his return to Oregon, Tom developed a passion for creative writing. He has authored three books of essays and poetry inspired by spawning salmon, wind in old trees, a decaying house in the Coast Range, and the silent persistence of salamanders. His current writing project is a collaboration with local nature artist Emily Poole, a collection of 10 illustrated field trip essays designed to immerse readers in the fascinating world of Pacific Northwest salamanders.

Find Tom’s blog at Words on the Nature of Life, tomtitus.substack.com.

Join your friends at the Campbell Center, 155 High Street, Eugene, on Tuesday, February 24, at 7:00. The doors will open at 6:30 for some social time. This program will be available online via Zoom. A recording of the program will be posted on Zoom within the following week.