>Getting back to the secretions, most these species, especially tigers will
>only do this when they think they are in grave danger. There is always a
>slight bit of this on them though. While handling many salamanders your
>hands will be soon coated with a super glue like substance that just has to
>wear off on its own, nothing known will take it off, atleast gasoline and
>paint stripper hadnt worked on me =). There is a defense posture with the
>little blue spots, they wave their tails in the air, and arch their backs.
>Somtimes the stuff just spurts out of the skin with an audible noise.
The northwestern salamander will arch its back and appears like it's on its
toes. I thought it was to look big like cats do, but from what I read it
may be to display the glands that secrete (not excrete, like I said
before--oops...) the poison. The poison kind of oozes out and runs down
the sides.
-- Jay DeLong Olympia, WA "If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." -- Aldo Leopold (1953)
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