Manders strutting their styles

Well there's still not much happening at the fences due to lack of rain. We may have some tonight or tomorrow and I'll be out of town (conference in KC) so hopefully Brett, Brian or David will let everyone know what's happening.

In previous posts I've mentioned that every marbled salamander has a unique pattern--which is why we can use photos to ID individuals.  Robert Horan gave me this photo the other day and it perfectly illustrates how variable the patterns can be.  The one in the upper left has very little white down the middle and the white is actually pretty gray which usually is the case for females.  Then the one on the right is more white than black with very thick "dog bones" across the back.  On the bottom you have what I consider the more typical "dog bone" pattern with thin white bars that go across the back and are thicker on the ends--hence the dog bone.  All three of these have a decent amount of white/gray on their heads, but that is something else that can vary a ton.  Hopefully some day we can actually do some work to figure out more about why they have such different patterns and whether it matters for mate choice or competition among males.