Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with salamander

Is it because I joined Geico?

cestmoi15 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:36:46 -0800

Can anyone tell me what this (lizard?) is I found in the basement? We found this creature in the basement. Can anyone tell me what it is? Sorry about the photo quality its the best out of 4, he runs away.

We're wondering if it would make a good pet, I'm in the NY metro area and it is getting cold out, so I'd hate to put him outside, not sure he should live in the basement by himself either.

Are these salamanders doomed?

alms — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:46:22 -0800

I found three salamanders under a trash can sitting on the cement walk next to my house. Is there anything I can do to increase their chances of survival through the winter? The trash can is filled with leaves, and will be left in place through most of the winter. It might get moved around once, though, if we have work done on our gutters.

Is it too late in the fall to encourage the salamanders to relocate to a more protected setting?

Should I even be worried about this? I have the impression that salamanders are protected in Massachusetts. Over the years I've found a few of them under old boards and such in my yard. It's always exciting to see them, and I always try to put the boards back carefully so as not to crush the little critters.

Other details:

The salamanders are muddy brown.

I live near Boston.

Fantasy Books with Anthropomorphic Rabbits?

d13t_p3ps1 — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:36:42 -0800

I can't remember this 70's/80's fantasy book series! It's driving me nuts. I've been searching google and amazon for about two hours and I keep hitting dead ends. The details I remember:

The main character was a stoner type who got dragged into a fantasy world.
A female he went to school with followed him.
His magic was music-based.
He and the female were the only humans, all the other characters were anthropomorphic rabbits and foxes and other animals.
One of the main animal characters was a rabbit.
There was a large salamander that was a communist.
A strip club featuring a stripping mink (i think)

I am pretty sure I'm not thinking of Discworld. I got the paperback versions of the books from a library sale, the covers looked like typical Tor fantasy novels from that time period.

.............well, i got better

nihlton — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 19:20:04 -0800

salamander/newt pollywog food In the past, I raised a clutch of tree frog eggs which the mother had laid in a puddle which wouldn't last through the spring. It was really fun and liked thinking that I had helped the little buggers.

anyway, I found a pond near my house with salamander or newt pollywogs and got real excited and took a bunch home with me. If it helps identify the animal, I live south of seattle and there are pictures here

The catch is, im having trouble finding the right food. The tree frog pollywogs ate just about anything i could throw at them, but these guys are ignoring fish flakes, frozen blood worms and algae pellets and are instead taking bites at each other.

I think this means I need live food?

suggestions? Ideally, it'd be something I could go back to the pond and grab a bunch of (free) but id be willing to go the pet store route.

The pond had tons of these punctuation sized aquatic bugs. Maybe those?

If i can't get them to eat, Ill return them to the pond.