UW Biodiversity Institute to Host Salamander Migration Nights Training April 4

The University of Wyoming's Biodiversity Institute will again focus on the Western tiger salamander this spring and offer the public opportunities to help assist Wyoming's state amphibian with its annual migration journey from Laramie yards to the pond in LaBonte Park.

The Laramie Salamander Migration Initiative will start with a volunteer training session from 10-11 a.m. Saturday, April 4, in UW's Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center. Volunteers will learn what to do during "Migration Nights" that will occur during April.

During Migration Nights, the public is asked to help adult salamanders safely cross the road during their migrations. Each spring, on rainy nights, hundreds of Western tiger salamanders -- taking up residence in the yards of Laramie homes -- find their way to LaBonte Park.

Registration for the "Migration Nights" volunteer list is required of all volunteers, new and returning. People who register will be those who receive an email when the Biodiversity Institute's research team expects a large migration. People can register here. The training will not be live-streamed, but it will be recorded.

At the training session, volunteers will learn about tiger salamander ecology; why salamanders need volunteer help in Laramie; and how they can help salamanders in Laramie and/or around the state. Additionally, volunteers will learn specific protocols that anybody going out to LaBonte Park will need to know to keep themselves and the salamanders safe, and to allow Biodiversity Institute staff to collect their necessary data.

"2025 was a bit of an odd year for the migration. Our first mass migration occurred March 29, which was an entire month earlier than it has been in the last six-plus years," Lee says. "I believe we likely missed the second mass migration, which probably occurred late at night or in the early morning hours sometime between March 29 and April 24. We had a small migration April 24. In total last year, we collected data from 79 live salamanders."

During 2024, volunteers counted 89 salamanders; in 2023, 117 were tallied; and 89 were calculated in 2022, the first year of the project.

Adult tiger salamanders are difficult to find because they spend much of the year underground and, when they are above ground, they are primarily nocturnal. When they reach LaBonte Park, they breed and lay thousands of eggs in the pond. After a few weeks, the eggs will hatch, and small aquatic salamanders emerge. Toward the end of the summer, the tiger salamanders undergo a metamorphosis to become terrestrial adult salamanders. They migrate back to the yards around LaBonte Park, where they spend the rest of the year in underground burrows until the following spring.

The research team will be stationed at the LaBonte Park covered picnic shelter near Eighth and Canby streets as well as the shelter just north of the Feeding Laramie Valley building on Ninth Street on the "big" migration nights. Researchers will collect information on the sex and size of the salamanders before releasing them, Lee says.

Volunteers should report to the picnic shelter north of the Feeding Laramie Valley building to collect high-visibility safety vests, gloves and buckets. Volunteers will need to wear warm, waterproof clothing and headlamps.

Report a Salamander

The "Report a Salamander" project is another component of the Laramie Salamander Migration Initiative. Citizens are asked to submit reports on salamander sightings in Laramie as well as around the state. Reports of live or dead adult salamanders and larval salamanders are welcome. To submit a report, go hereto fill out the requested information.

Last year, the Berry Biodiversity Institute received 40 reports of salamanders from around the state, Lee says.

The Report a Salamander part of the initiative provides more information about where tiger salamanders elsewhere in the state may need help on their migration nights; where salamanders in Laramie are distributed; and can help determine whether a spring migration was missed, Lee says.

"Last year, we had interesting observations in that we observed lots of metamorphic salamanders leaving Labonte en masse throughout the summer. We thought they would move in one or two mass migrations, like they do in the spring." Lee says. "But there were at least six summer nights where we counted well over 30 salamanders moving."

For those who plan to participate in reporting salamanders, Lee says a good place to check for the amphibians is in window wells, especially during the spring season.

"Window wells provide a nice area for salamanders to dig down into the soil for protection during winter," she says. "But when they emerge in the spring, they can be trapped in the window wells and may perish without human intervention."

The Biodiversity Institute's graphic artist is putting together a visual report of the salamander statistics from last year that will be shared via email and social media by the end of the month and at the April 4 training, Lee says.

There will not be a "Salamander Saturday" event this year, but it may return in future iterations of the initiative, Lee says.

For more information about the Laramie Salamander Migration Initiative, email Lee at [email protected].

About the University of Wyoming Biodiversity Institute

The UW Biodiversity Institute fosters conservation of biodiversity through scientific discovery, creative dissemination, education and public engagement. In this setting, scientists, citizens, students and educators come together to share a wealth of perspectives on the study and appreciation of biodiversity -- from microbes to poetry and ecosystems to economics. For more information, go to https://www.wyomingbiodiversity.org.