Guide to Bay Area Salamanders

The rain is back! Good news for our amphibious friends. Touch, but don't eat: "Newts in the genus Taricha contain tetrodotoxin (TTX), the same toxin found in pufferfish. It is fatal to humans — that said, they’re safe to touch provided you wash your hands afterward."

Olms!

Very cool:

Though it does not breathe fire, the olm has several attributes fitting a creature of mythology. It can live as long as a hundred years and survive without food for 10. It is blind, but hunts using its incredible sense of hearing and smell, and it can detect electric and magnetic fields.

Photo by Boštjan Burger.