How fire salamanders protect themselves with poison

Bright colors often indicate a warning, and, indeed, the spots on the fire salamander’s skin do just that. If threatened, the amphibian can secrete poison from glands behind the eyes straight into a predator’s mouth.

Once common in forests and wetlands of western Europe, the fire salamander is now listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List; experts predict a 30% to 49% population decline within three generations—as short as 21 years.

One of the biggest threats to these and other salamanders is Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), an emerging fungal pathogen that causes skin lesions, which can inhibit water, nutrient, and oxygen absorption and lead to death.

In addition to disease and habitat loss, salamanders, frogs, and caecilians around the world face steep declines due to climate change, according to the IUCN’s 2023 global amphibian assessment. It named salamanders the most threatened amphibians, with three out of every four species at risk of extinction, making climate mitigation, habitat protection, and disease containment all the more urgent.