I’ve always been fascinated by the lizards around my mountain holler. There’s the eastern fence lizards that look like miniature dinosaurs, the blue tailed ones that are always sunning on my back deck, the army green ones that look like they’ve ate more than their fair share of bugs, and the lizards who live in and near the creek.
It’s hard for me to pick a favorite.
The eastern fence lizards do some impressive push ups to try to get a mate. The blue tailed ones are fast as lightning. The green ones make me think of exotic places.
I suppose my favorites are the ones that live in and near the creek.
From the large orange ones to the small deep black purple ones they have a shine to them that stands out in the duskiness of the laurels that overhang the creek.
When I was a girl I was good at catching them. Sometimes we caught them for a much anticipated fishing trip, other times we caught them just to see if we could. Once we admired them we set them free and watched as they dove back into the cold water or under the nearest creek rock.
A few days ago I received the following email.
“Good day – I am a reader and fan who is hoping that perhaps you can help me with a question.
I am looking for Applachian dialect or slang words for salamanders. Perhaps there’s a way to ask your readers?
Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you for creating such great content. I live in Colorado now but feel “at home” with your words and music and video!
Thanks much,
Marilyn Walker”
I don’t think I ever heard the word salamander until I was grown. Maybe I heard in school, but if I did it didn’t stick with me. All lizards that were found in moist places like the flowing water of the Stamey Branch and the banks that surround it were called spring lizards by us.
The name spring lizard is a holdover from the days when folks used a spring house to keep their perishables cold. Lizards could often be seen in the cool wet interiors where milk and butter were stored.
Long time Blind Pig reader Ken Roper told a great story about fishing for lizards. You can read it here.
Please leave a comment and share any words used for salamanders that you may know.
Last night’s video: Alex Stewart Portrait of a Pioneer 12.
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We call the little orange ones we have in CNY, Newts. In their young form the technical term is an Eft and then they grow up & become a newt/salamander.
Like Tipper, spring lizards is all I have heard them called. They come in all sizes and colors and fun to catch! I caught a lot of them as a child.
The little brown ones always found in the creek we called “water dogs” or ‘”mud puppies.”
The blue tailed lizards, quite abundant around these parts (SE TN), my dad always called “streakfields.”
Supposedly, East Tennessee has an abundance of salamanders with the greatest diversity of species found anywhere in the world, or so we’ve been told by those in the know. Wouldn’t surprise me in the least if some didn’t make it over the border to your neck of the woods, Tipper.
To me they’re all lizards.
The last time I was in Bryson City – maybe 30 years ago – I went on the train station side of the Tuckasegee and stood on the banks watching the beautiful swift water flowing when my eye caught something on the bottom, behind a rock. It was a salamander about a foot long and solid black. In all the years I’ve spent staring into water, that was the first time I had ever seen one so clearly and so out in the open.
As for lizards, here in central Texas we have brown geckos, green anoles, alligator lizards occasionally, and skinks. There are probably more but that is what I’ve seen around our yard. I’ve also seen the occasional scorpion and, once, a golden tarantula about 4″ across.
We have the little blue tailed lizards at our campground. Cute little critters.
Mama called them scorpions.
My grandmothers’ Carolina (1940’s) backyard cement pond was always a place to catch mudpuppies. They looked very much like mud but never tried to hurt us when we held them. It was only later in school that I learned they were really salamanders.
In my neck of the woods spring lizards were often called branch lizards. The orange ones were “red puppies”‘ Red puppies weren’t found in or near water always. We found more of them while plowing the field than in the branch. Red puppies fetched a premium at bait shops. For us they counted as a large no matter the size.
The striped lizards you speak of were called “scorpent lizards”. That name might have come from scorpions because the lizards can lose and regrow their tails like a scorpion can.
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I like fence lizards. There are a lot of the green lizards at my wife’s old home place but the cold winter we had seems to have killed a lot of them off, but I am sure they will be back. Dennis Morgan
All I ever recall hearing is “spring lizards”. If I ever heard anything else I have forgotten it.
I can’t say I’ve ever heard them called anything other than just lizards.
Growing up I use to find salamanders around our home place under the rocks and leaves. What lizards were seen and could never catch, have the blue tail and those were found at our Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Those move at the speed of lightening! We have both where we live at now. I love watching the blue tailed lizards as they crawl along our brick wall and when we are walking on our sidewalk they rush off to hide under the downspouts. The blue tailed lizards are called Skinks. Here a link with some pictures and information, https://www.britannica.com/animal/skink
From Wikipedia’s entry on the Hellbender:
The origin of the name “hellbender” is unclear. The Missouri Department of Conservation says:
The name ‘hellbender’ probably comes from the animal’s odd look. One theory claims the hellbender was named by settlers who thought “it was a creature from hell where it’s bent on returning.” Another rendition says the undulating skin of a hellbender reminded observers of “horrible tortures of the infernal regions.” In reality, it’s a harmless aquatic salamander.[7]
Other vernacular names include snot otter,[8] lasagna lizard,[8] devil dog, mud-devil, grampus, Allegheny alligator, mud dog, water dog, and leverian water newt.[5]
Appalachia, with its ‘islands in the sky’, has a huge diversity of rare salamander species, many of them isolated on just one or two ridgelines!
Here in Pittsburgh we have the Hellbender, cryptobranchus alleganiensis, the largest salamander in North America, and the third largest species in the world. It can get up to three feet long! They live in the deep tributaries of the Allegheny. Their name means ‘hidden lungs’, because in addition to their external lungs in youth, they develop air exchange through their skin, as well as an internal, hidden set of lungs.
They said of the hellbenders that when you caught one, it was trying to wriggle its way back to hell, hence the name.
There are neotenous (retaining their youthful characteristics) salamanders here too called Mudpuppies, whose exteneral lungs form tufts like dog ears.
Some salamander species are said to ‘bark’ – a sound in line with their occasional canine names.
I’ve always called them spring lizards. Salamanders are interesting little creatures, and some varieties are called newts. Tennessee is the salamander capital of the world, with 56 different ones having been identified.
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission also claims 56 species for our state. But, as in all things, we acquiesce.
Oh my gosh, I would have had a fit if I had that one get on me…I don’t do spiders and snakes and that one is way to close looking like the later. We seem to have more lizards around my home, we don’t live in the city, and I also see a lot without tails. I don’t know what that’s about. Loved the recent ‘Alex’ reading and look forward to more ‘readings’. God Bless