Key Characteristics: Dark brown or black with irregularly shaped yellow blotches scattered across the back and sides;belly olive-yellow.

Adults: 18-21 cm. Eastern Tiger Salamanders are large and robust with a large head and a broad, rounded snout.The back and sides are blue-black or brownish-black with irregular yellow blotches and spots on the back and sides. The belly is yellowish or olive-yellow with some invading dark pigment.

Habitat: A salamander of open habitats: marshes, grasslands and pastures.

Ecology: Mostly fossorial and capable of digging their own burrows, Tiger Salamanders are rarely seen above ground except during the breeding season. They eat almost anything they can overpower, including small vertebrates. Although not abundant, this species may persist in urban areas and in extensively cultivated regions.

Reproduction: Breeding occurs in late winter and early spring in small ponds, marshes, gravel pits, farm ponds, and other shallow (preferable fishless) bodies of water . Eggs are laid in moderately large globular or elongate masses (usually smaller and less firm than those produced by the spotted salamander) attached to twigs or other litter near the pond bottom. The eggs hatch in about four weeks. The length of the larval stage is variable (depending on the quality and permanence of the breeding site), but most larva transform by the end of July.