Scientific name: Ambystoma californiense & mavortium
Family: Ambystomatidae
Order: Caudata
Class: Amphibia
Range: North America
Habitat: Grassland, Woodland
Lifespan: 12 to 15 years

What do they look like?
The hybrid tiger salamander at Happy Hollow is a cross between the California tiger salamander and barred tiger salamander. Both California and barred tiger salamanders are around 7 to -8 inches long as adults. Hybrids between the two species occur in nature and are generally larger than either of the parent species. These salamanders have a brown to black body and tail, with brown to yellow spots and patches, resembling tiger stripes, giving them their common name.

How do they behave?
These nocturnal salamanders are rather secretive in the wild, spending the daylight hours in burrows dug by other animals, such as ground squirrels and gophers. In the evenings they hunt for food, using their strong jaws to capture prey.

What do they eat?
In the wild, hybrid tiger salamanders catch insects, other arthropods, and sometimes fish, although they usually hunt on land. At Happy Hollow, they eat crickets and mealworms.

How are they born?
After the first heavy rains in winter, tiger salamanders find their way to the shallow pools of their breeding ground where females may lay over 1,000 eggs on submerged logs, rocks and vegetation. The larvae hatch in two to three weeks depending on conditions, and eat insects, tadpoles, and other aquatic prey. Like all amphibians, hybrid tiger salamanders have an aquatic larval stage which has external branching gills on the back of the head. Larvae begin to metamorphose (change) into adults during the summer. They will be fully mature after 2 to 3 years, depending on availability of resources.

What should you know about them?
Larval salamanders are sometimes called mudpuppies and sold as bait. In this way, the barred tiger salamander (A. mavortium) was accidentally introduced by fishermen into the range of the California tiger salamander (A. californiense). Hybrids between these species outcompete their parents for resources.

Conservation
Due to being a hybrid species, the hybrid tiger salamander has not been evaluated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature . However, the California tiger salamander is listed as a vulnerable species by the IUCN. Several organizations, such as Stanford University have committed to the conservation of the California tiger salamander. Stanford has helped to protect these animals by constructing artificial wetlands and tunnel systems to aid in salamander migration. If you would like to help the California tiger salamander you can start by thinking about the way you use water. Water conservation is easy, and it benefits both individual animals and whole habitats. You can start simply by turning off the water when you brush your teeth or taking shorter showers. If you would like to take your conservation action a step further, you can install low-flow shower heads in your house or research water-conscious plants when landscaping. These actions will help protect tiger salamander habitat as well as save you money.