desmognathus conanti, sauta cave surface stream, sauta cave national wildlife refuge, jackson county, alabama 6

Salamanders in the genus Desmognanthus are often difficult to identify to species. There can be many individuals in a small area of suitable habitat. The spring run from the lower entrance of Sauta Cave to Lake Guntersville flows only about three hundred feet. We caught and swabbed twenty salamanders looking for evidence of the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis that causes this chytrid disease. We concluded this is the spotted dusky salamander. The dark area is the cave entrance.