Wintering of siberian salamander Salamandrella keyserlingii (Dybowski, 1870) in Central Yakutia

During 2013-2014 winter seasons, in the territory of Yakut ‘Orto-Doydu’ Zoo, 50 km the south of Yakutsk, Salamandrella keyserlingii wintering conditions were studied. The DS 19221-F5 thermograph, programmed to measure the temperature every 3 hours, was placed in a typical wintering den of a Siberian salamander. On September 16, 2013, the den was found in the forest, 70 m from a lake under a dead stump at a depth of about 10 cm with three Siberian salamanders inside. Next year on May 5, at the opening of the wintering den there were discovered all three hardly active Siberian salamanders. To the end of the third decade of December, in the wintering den of the Siberian salamanders, under the snow cover up to 40 cm deep, the temperature was at minus 10 15°C. From the late December to early March, the temperature in the den fluctuated from minus17°C to minus 26°C, and then it started to rise. In the second half of March the temperature increased up to above minus 10°C. In late April, the rate of temperature rise has increased dramatically reaching nearly zero values. In the middle of the third decade of April the rate was positive. And in early May, awakening of Siberian salamanders from hibernation began. The achieved data state that in Central Yakutia a relatively deep snow cover plays a significant role in thermal protection for animals wintering at ground surface and at shallow depths in the surface soil and subsoil layer. This is most clear in the coldest months from November to February, when the temperature difference reaches up to 20° or more degrees. One of the conditions favouring successful wintering of Siberian salamander in Central Yakutia, unlike in other regions, including the Magadan region, is that cold snaps and warmings stop alternating after October, and once frozen animals don’t wake up. The remarkable cold resistance of Siberian salamander was also confirmed by the fact that they successfully wintered in a frozen condition for a long seven-month Yakutian winter at temperatures from minus 5° to minus 26°C.

1. Seroshevskij V.L. Yakuty. Opyt etnograficheskogo issledovaniya. Saint Petersburg, 1896, 2-e izd.: M. 1993, p. 736.

2. Werner A. Die nordlichsten Amphibien und Reptilien. Fauna Arctica, Bd 4, Jena, 1906.

3. Schvarz S.S., Ischenko V.G. Puti prisposobleniya nazemnyh pozvonochnyh zhivotnyh k usloviyam suschestvovaniya v Subarktike. Tom III. Zemnovodnye. – Trudy Instituta ekologii rastenij i zhivotnyh Ural'skogo filiala AN SSSR, vyp. 79. Sverdlovsk, 1971, p. 60.

4. Scherbak N.N., Kovalyuh N.N. O vozraste zhivogo zemnovodnogo (Hynobius keyserlingi Dyb., 1970) iz iskopaemogo l’da //Dokl. AN SSSR, 1973, vol. 211, № 4, pp. 1003-1004.

5. Berman D.I., Lejrih A.N., Mihajlova E.I. O zimovke sibirskogo uglozuba Hynobius keyserlingii na Verhnej Kolyme. // Zhkrn. Evol. Biohim. I fiziol. № 3, pp. 323-326.

6. Berman D.I. O mestah i usloviyah zimovki sibirskih uglozubov (Hynobius keyserlingi Dyb.) v gornolesnoj Subarktike severo-vostoka Azii // Zoologicheskij zhurnal, 1992, vol. 7, № 7, pp. 75-85.

7. Berman D.I. Ideal'nyj prisposoblenec, ili adaptivnaya strategiya sibirskogo uglozuba // Priroda, 2002, №10, pp. 59-68.

8. Alfimov A.V., Berman D.I. Razmnozhenie sibirskogo uglozuba (Salamandrella keyserlingii, Amphibia, Caudata) v vodoemah na vechnoj merzlote Severo-Vostoka Azii // Zoo. zhurnal, 2010, vol. 89, №3, pp. 302-318.

9. Berman D.I., Lejrih A.N., Mescheryakova

10. E.N. O sposobnosti embrionov sibirskogo uglozuba (Salamandrella keyserlingii, Caudata, Amphibia) perenosit' otricatel'nye temperatury // Zoo. zhurnal, 2006, vol.85, №10, pp.1230-1235.

11. Berman D.I., Mescheryakova E.N.

12. Solomonov K.S., Sedalishev V.T., Solomonova T.N., Kirillin R.A. Amphibian biodiversity in Yakutia: the coldest region of the Earth / J. of Ecosystem & Echography – Jun., 2014, vol. 4, issue 3, p. 38.

13. Solomonov N.G., Germogenov N.I., Solomonov K.S., Isaev A.P., Ohlopkov I.M., Shemyakin E.V., Vladimirceva M.V., Kirillin R.A. Zhivotnye Yakutii kak objekty ekologicheskogo turizma // Nauka i obrazovanie, 2016. № 3 (83), pp. 128-135.

14. Larionov P.D., Solomonov N.G., Larionov G.P. Materialy po rasprostraneniyu i biologii zemnovodnyh i presmykayuschihsya v Yakutii // Voprosy gerpetologii. L. 1964, pp. 38-39.

15. Belimov G.T., Cedalischev V.T. K ekologii amfibij Central'noj Yakutii // Ekologiya,1977, № 6, pp. 85-88.

16. Belimov G.T., Sedalischev V.T. K ekologii sibirskogo uglozuba (Hynobius keyserlingii Dyb.) v Central'noj Yakutii // Biologicheskie nauki, 1983.

17. №10, p. 37.

18. Borkin L.YA., Belimov G.T., Sedalischev V.T. Novye dannye o rasprostranenii amfibij i reptilij v Yakutii // Tr. Zool. inst. AN SSSR. L.: 1984, vol. 124, pp. 89-101.

19. Sedalischev V.T. K ekologii zemnovodnyh i reptilij Yakutii // Geologiya, geografiya i biologicheskoe raznoobrazie Severo-Vostoka Rossii. Materialy Dal'nevostochnoj konf., posvyaschennoj pamyati A.P. Vas'kovskogo i v chest' 95-letiya. Magadan, 2006, pp. 402-407.

20. Schmid W. D. Survival of frogs in low temperature, Science. 1982, vol. 215, № 4533, pp. 697– 698.

21. Kelvin G.M. Brockbank, Lia H. Campbell, Elizabeth D. Greene, Matthew C.G. Brockbank, John G. Duman. Lessons from nature for preservation of mammalian cells, tissues, and organs. In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology. Animal, vol. 47, № 3 (March 2011), pp. 210-217.