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Next time you’re walking through fallen leaves in a forest, keep an eye out for the Eastern red-backed salamander—a small woodland creature with a huge role to play.

A recently published study sheds light on the ecological importance of red-backed salamanders in the northeastern United States. The article, published in the journal Biology Letters, revealed the amphibians’ densities and biomass across the region were much higher than expected, with a great...

The secret to salamanders’ survival may be in their slimy secretions. Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute are swabbing salamanders in Shenandoah, looking for disease-fighting microbes that live in the mucus on their skin.

A recent paper by Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists with the Center for Species Survival found that salamanders were larger in warmer parts of their range. The scientists also found that that body size increased significantly in places where the climate had become hotter and...