A Splash of Rain
Photo Jane Robinson All it took was a just a splash of rain, and the life that been patiently waiting hidden underground or in some secluded crevice burrowed the way up to the surface as night fell. The first to appear was a Fire Salamander ( Fr. Salamandre tachetée ), slowly waddling across the terrace, an impressive archaic looking beast with its bright yellow spots and stripes on the shiny black background skin. The European Fire salamanders are quite big, up to 25 centimetres, and they are known for their longevity; one lived for more than 50 years in a natural history museum in Germany. A Fire Salamander The brightness of the skin colouring is deliberate; a warning to potential predators that it is not good to eat, an advertisement of the toxic glands situated around the head and the skin of the back. I was not going to touch it, they are quite capable of shedding their tails and limbs as a defence mechanism and then growing them back nearly...