Whitethorn and Garberville, California

Desert Slender Salamander or Batrachoseps major aridus is a green and black kind of cloudy amphibian.

It usually lives in oasis's and it is an endangered species.  There is little known about these salamanders because there are so few left. I found this at my great aunt and uncle's house up in the mountains. They live in a cool house made out of wood.  They have three different ponds by their house and there are lots of bugs and amphibians.  They have  a really short dog named Bessie. Bessie looks like a wooly bear caterpillar because she's so close to the ground.

 

Two days ago when we left Garberville we passed through the Chandelier Tree in our car. It was a tight squeeze but after some scraping of mirrors and antennas we made it. The Chandelier Tree is a redwood that is 2100 yrs old and its still growing. A couple days before this we had walked through huge redwood trees. Some were hollow and you could hide in them. We saw one tree that had fallen down in a storm a couple weeks ago. When it fell it had smashed up the trees around it and it blocked the path. Walking through the trees made us feel tiny and I kept thinking  a dinosaur would jump out from behind a tree.

This Jerusalem Cricket or "potato bug" is a nocturnal insect in the cricket family.  It primarily feeds on dead organic matter but can also feed on other insects.  They are not venomous but they can spray a foul smell and they have a painful bite.  Some Jerusalem crickets can make a sound by rubbing their legs against their abdomen to create a rasping, hissing noise. This is to deter predators.  When we first saw the potato bug we thought it was dangerous and we stayed away from it. Even though they look terrifying they are just like crickets and they aren't that weird.

Uroctonus mordax or "Northwest Forest scorpion"  I found both of these guys under one rotten log at my great aunt and uncle's house.  These guys typically live in cold and humid places and can sometimes get into houses.  They will sting people but only if you step on them or high five them, don't high five scorpions.  Their sting on a one to five scale, five being most painful and one being least painful, is about a one and unless you have allergic reactions the pain will subside the next day.  They make cool pets and are easy to keep.  One of my cousins had a scorpion as a pet for almost a year.  It was a Bark Scorpion that he found in the desert while he was camping. Did you know that the Bark scorpion is the most poisonous scorpion in North America!  Also the smaller the scorpion is the worse the sting will be.