Where Do Fire Salamanders Live? Forests Across Europe

The fire salamander’s range in Europe

The fire salamander has one of the largest ranges of any European salamander. In the west it is found across much of the Iberian Peninsula, especially the wetter north and the mountains, and throughout most of France. It reaches Belgium, Luxembourg and the far south of the Netherlands, where only a few small populations remain.

Moving east, it lives across central and southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czechia, Slovakia and southern Poland, and along the Carpathian Mountains through western Ukraine and Romania. In the south it occurs across mainland Italy and throughout the Balkan Peninsula, including Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia and Greece.

It is missing from the far north. There are no native fire salamanders in Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden or Finland, and they are absent from the flat, sandy lowlands of the North European Plain, which lack the hills and forest streams they need.

Countries where fire salamanders live

Habitat: damp forests near clean streams

Within this range, fire salamanders are choosy about habitat. Their favorite home is mature deciduous forest, especially beech and oak woods, on hilly ground with deep leaf litter, moss, fallen logs, stones and tree roots. Mixed forests can also be suitable, but dense, dry conifer plantations are usually poor habitat.

Water is essential for breeding. Females need small, cool, well-oxygenated streams, springs or spring-fed pools where they can release their larvae, often in slow, shallow sections of headwater streams. Fish-free waters are best, because trout and other fish eat many larvae. In some areas, the salamanders also use ponds, wells, cattle troughs or the old washhouses found in French villages.

Most fire salamanders live between about 250 and 1,000 m (820–3,300 ft) above sea level. In northern Germany they are found sporadically down to around 25 m (82 ft), while in the mountains of Spain and the Balkans they commonly live at higher altitudes.

Hiding places by day

Fire salamanders spend most of their time out of sight. By day they shelter in cool, damp places such as:

• Under logs, bark and stones on the forest floor.
• In rodent burrows and gaps between tree roots.
• In rock crevices and the cracks of old stone walls.
• In caves, old mines and cellars, which are especially important as winter quarters.

They come out mainly in the evening and at night, and on rainy or foggy days they may also wander about in daylight. In central Europe they hibernate from about November to March, often in groups, and many return to the same winter site for years. In the hottest, driest parts of southern Europe they may also hide through the summer.

Subspecies across the range

The fire salamander varies so much across Europe that scientists recognize more than a dozen subspecies. Some of the best known are:

• S. s. salamandra (spotted fire salamander), central and southeastern Europe, with irregular yellow spots.
• S. s. terrestris (barred fire salamander), France, Belgium, the Netherlands and western Germany, often with yellow in two broken stripes.
• S. s. gallaica (Galician fire salamander), northwestern Spain and Portugal.
• S. s. bernardezi and S. s. fastuosa, northern Spain, which give birth to fully formed young instead of larvae.
• S. s. gigliolii, central and southern Italy, often with large yellow areas.

Several populations once included in the species are now treated as separate species, such as the Corsican fire salamander on Corsica, the North African fire salamander in Morocco and Algeria, and the Near Eastern fire salamander in the Levant. The all-black alpine salamander of the Alps is a separate, closely related species.

Why their range is shrinking in places

Fire salamanders remain widespread, but they have disappeared from parts of their range. In the Netherlands their range shrank by more than half between 1950 and the early 2000s because of habitat changes, and then the introduced fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) killed about 96 percent of the remaining animals after 2010.

Bsal has since spread through parts of Belgium and western Germany, especially the Eifel region, with separate outbreaks elsewhere in Germany and one contained outbreak in Spain. Forest loss, roads that cut across migration routes, and streams that are polluted or dry up in hot summers add to the pressure. Find out more in why amphibians are declining.

Where and when to see fire salamanders

The best time to look is on a mild, rainy evening in spring or autumn, walking slowly along a path through hilly beech or oak forest near a stream. In spring, females may be seen at the edge of streams releasing their larvae. Popular areas include the forests of Germany, France, northern Spain, northern Italy, Austria and Slovakia.

Stay on the path, use a flashlight and do not pick them up: their skin is sensitive, and handling can spread disease. In regions affected by Bsal, clean and dry your boots before visiting another site. For their pond-loving relatives, see where newts live.