Childhoods in the Pembina Valley are often spent in and around ditches, ponds, creeks, and other small bodies of water. In this environment lurks a creature that is something of a marvel to spot: the tiger salamander.
A special area
The amphibian, quite reclusive in nature, is a childhood memory for most in the Pembina Valley, but for Neil Balchan, a PhD student at Oklahoma State University, the salamander is also a means to important research.
Or perhaps more accurately, while the salamander itself is common, it is the Pembina Valley that is a means to important research because of its unique relationship to the animal.
Tiger salamanders, which are further divided into species including the eastern and western salamander, have a large range in North America (they are found coast to coast and from Canada to Mexico). The keystone province is a special location when it comes to the distinctions between the species.
“Manitoba is . . . one of the few places in the world where these two tiger salamanders reach each other. The Red River is what we conventionally think of as a boundary that separates the two of them, so the salamanders east of the Red River are meant to be eastern tiger salamanders, and then the salamanders west of the Red River we think of as being western tiger salamanders,” says Balchan. “The Pembina Valley region especially and then Manitoba more broadly represents a really interesting place for these salamanders.”
Balchan says that sometimes, the special qualities of the province can be lost on its inhabitants.
“I think one of the things that we sometimes forget about as Manitobans is . . . how unique our province is. Granted we live in a pretty cold place and maybe sometimes the fun musicians and artists will skip us when they're doing their world tour, but we do have a lot of really cool things going for us,” he says. “Manitoba is the only province in Canada with the eastern tiger salamander. This salamander is federally endangered, so . . . [it’s a] special kind of homegrown Manitoba salamander that we should be proud of.”
Next spring, Balchan, who is originally from Winnipeg, will visit the Pembina Valley to collect DNA samples from the salamanders here. The reason for his visit is to address a historical problem with tracking amphibians in the area — no one thinks of the Pembina Valley as a region that has them.
“The big problem that we have when we do analyses for creatures in Manitoba is that we just don't have samples,” he says. “That's for a couple of reasons. We're pretty far north, and we're not really somewhere with a great amphibian and reptile diversity if you compare us to other places. Because of that, I think it's easy to overlook Manitoba . . . . That's definitely been a historical problem that we've had in Manitoba, so the purpose of my trip is to really fill some of those gaps.”
Balchan says that a lot of work he does relates to the relationships between animals, so the more DNA data he collects in the Pembina Valley, the better. Having a solid foundation of different DNA samples assists scientists like Balchan in learning about salamander species and how they fit into the environment. It also helps paint a picture of the qualities of the Pembina Valley that are specific to the region.
Childhood curiosities to a fulfilling career
For Balchan, the project is dear to his heart. As a child, he visited the Pembina Valley to become acquainted with the small creatures that call the region home.
“I spent a lot of my early years . . . running around various corners of the province and looking for the creepy crawlies,” he says, adding that he enjoyed flipping rocks and dip netting in ponds. “The Pembina Valley was kind of my playground as a kid and as I matured a little bit as a scientist.”
Balchan says that his interests as a child, which perhaps seemed a bit strange to others at the time, blossomed into a career.
“I think, you know, ‘normal kids’ [were] out playing soccer and doing whatever normal kids do. I was always the guy running around and catching bugs or catching frogs,” he says. “I think you get lucky and your parents nurture that and . . . you live in a place where you can do that, and then it just balloons out and out until you’re knee-deep in this and you're doing it for a living.”
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These days, Balchan’s career has taken him to Wollongong, Australia for a four-month research trip, where he sometimes spends late nights looking for snakes. For the time being, Balchan has put aside his interest in salamanders in favour of another research area of his — the changes that snakes and venom have undergone through time.
A funny little creature
Of course, the star of the show is still the tiger salamander. While to some, the sight of the creature may be startling, ultimately, they are harmless, meek, and untroubled beings.
Balchan’s profile of the tiger salamander is perhaps relatable to some.
“They have this kind of silly, not-very-intelligent looking face. They kind of blunder their way through life. Their eyesight isn't great. They don't really have much in the way of a defense that they can harm anything with,” he says. “They're just kind of adorable.”
Balchan says he appreciates that the salamander has nothing in particular happening and continues to survive, nonetheless.
“Every time I pick one up, I look it in the eye, and I think, ‘the lights are on, but nobody's home,’” he says.
Lumbering and lounging
As for identification of this unbothered friend, Balchan says that tiger salamanders are hard to miss.
“It's this big kind of bulky, almost clunky animal,” he says. “It's quite variable in colour pattern, so it can be brown or black with some yellow spots or [it could have] black kind of reticulated markings on it . . . . I think the biggest indicator is its size. It's a large salamander.”
The tiger salamander can also be identified by its languid movements. They are often spotted crossing roads on wet or rainy evenings in the spring and the fall.
Balchan notes that the amphibian’s appearance changes over the course of its life.
“The larvae look entirely different, so they have these kind of beautiful, feathery gills that come out of their head," he says. "You'll typically find them in shallow water, so usually a pond or a ditch.”
A declining population
While the appearance of a salamander is a distinct sight to behold, these days, there may not be as many around to see. The animals are more difficult to find in the Pembina Valley than other regions of the province.
“We have a pretty good understanding of where tiger salamanders are in Western Manitoba. They seem to be very abundant . . . up to as far as maybe Elm Creek, let's say. In this region we have a lot of little water bodies, [so] there are lots of areas where salamanders can breed," says Balchan. "Once we get a little bit further into the Pembina Valley and kind of approaching the Red River on either side, the habitat begins to go downhill.”
Balchan says that there are a few factors that contribute to the smaller population, including agricultural practices that change the landscape of the area and regular flooding in spring.
The salamander populations in the Pembina Valley are also affected by the presence of aquatic species.
“I think in our province especially, the biggest limitation that they have is breeding habitat. Salamanders are really dependent on these nice water bodies, and for a salamander to really breed and do well in a water body, it's generally looking for something shallow with a good bit of vegetation, but then the biggest issue is fish,” he says. “A young larval tiger salamander is great food for a bass or a perch.”
An opportunity to impact research
For those who worry about the plight of the tiger salamander, there are some relatively simple courses of action to take to help. In preparation for his visit in the new year, Balchan is looking for the community’s expertise to find and record local salamander populations.
“If you have a pond on your property or you know of a pond where you're bumping into tiger salamanders, I would love to know,” he says, adding that people in the area have been most helpful already.
Balchan can be reached at neil.balchan@okstate.edu.
For those who are interested in creating environments in which the tiger salamander can thrive, it’s as simple as preserving some of the unassuming bodies of water that are natural to the Pembina Valley.
“These small, little, almost inconsequential looking ponds that you find out in a field of wheat or the ditch at the edge of the road . . . are the kind of habitats that salamanders are looking for to breed in,” says Balchan.
For more information on the eastern tiger salamander, see The Government of Canada’s 2013 report about the species.