Fire salamander: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the fire salamander lives – recorded in 10 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Salamandra salamandra
Group	Salamanders, newts & caecilians
Status	Vulnerable (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	10 countries
Continents	Europe
Class	Amphibian
Order	Caudata
Family	Salamandridae

Where does the fire salamander live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the fire salamander in 10 countries and territories across Europe. In Belgium it is listed as introduced (GRIIS checklists via GBIF).

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

Is the fire salamander endangered?

The fire salamander’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Vulnerable” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the fire salamander?

The fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) is an amphibian in the order Caudata and the family Salamandridae, genus Salamandra. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the fire salamander

The fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) is a common species of salamander found in Europe.

It is black with yellow spots or stripes to a varying degree; some specimens can be nearly completely black while on others the yellow is dominant. Shades of red and orange may sometimes appear, either replacing or mixing with the yellow according to subspecies. This bright coloration is highly conspicuous and acts to deter predators by honest signalling of its toxicity (aposematism). Fire salamanders can have a very long lifespan; one specimen lived for more than 50 years in Museum Koenig, a German natural history museum.

Despite its wide distribution and abundance, it is classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List due to its susceptibility to infection by the introduced fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, which has caused severe declines in fire salamanders in parts of its range.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Fire salamander (revision 1357521317), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q26395 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).