One of the Creatures Among Us

This afternoon I went looking for a salamander to photograph. After about five minutes of looking I found an Ensatina under an old board. I grabbed a piece of moss and spent about five minutes photographing it. Then I carefully put it back where I had originally found it. Ensatinas are pretty cool in that they are a lungless salamander. Which obviously means that they don't have any lungs! They breathe through pores in their skin. Because of that care must be taken not to handle them too much as the oils from your skin can block those pores making it difficult to breathe. AAck! One of the other unusual things about them is that when the female lays her eggs she lays them underground not in the water(usually 9 -16 of them). They then hatch directly into being little salamanders. They don't go through an aquatic stage like most other amphibians. None of that tadpole stuff for Ensatinas. The last unusual thing about these little salamanders is that they have the ability to regenerate lost body parts.When they lose a leg or a tail to a predator it grows back. Such an amazing little creature! God's love to all, chris Camera Equipment Used- Canon 7D, 100mm Macro Lens, 2 Alien Bee Studio lights with large softboxes, Ishoot wireless flash triggers. Camera setting- Manual mode,ISO 400, Shutter speed 1/200th of a sec. F stop varied.