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Salamander Meander
Written By: Brian O’Shea | Issue: 2021/09 – September | Photograph By: Brian O'Shea - Plateau Daily News
It’s a nighttime prowl in search of the Plateau’s shyest and most diminutive denizens.
On a couple of special nights over the summer, the Highlands Nature Center holds a Salamander Meander, where visitors can walk the trails of the Nature Center at night in search
of salamanders.
The Plateau has one of the most diverse salamander populations in the world and if people want to get up close and personal to see them first-hand, they mostly come out at night.
“Getting out into the woods at night is when a lot of the smaller squishy things come out,” said Highlands Biological Station Educational Specialist Paige Englebrektsson. “Things that are easy prey during the daytime that don’t have many defense mechanisms, there’s fewer things to eat them at night.”
While on the Meander, groups wandered the Nature Center’s trails using flashlights and found salamanders, slugs, snails, crawfish, and millipedes. Any time groups of children passed by any living creatures there was a flutter of excitement to identify it.
“There so much to see out there at nighttime,” said Englebrektsson. “When kids are out there, I want them to have fun. They hear about salamanders at school, but if they don’t get out into the woods and see them, they’re not real to them yet. Getting out in nature and seeing things first hand helps them form a bond with
the environment.”
The Salamander Meander is one of the Nature Center Nights programs. Other nocturnal programs include Starlight Stroll, A Buggy Evening, and Going Batty.
For more information about the Highlands Nature Center and its programs, click highlandsbiological.org/nature-center or call (828) 526-2623.
