Are yellow spotted salamanders poisonous?

Yellow spotted salamanders are poisonous, although not lethally so. The yellow spotted salamander has glands on its back and tail that secrete a bitter milky toxin to ward off predators.

The yellow spotted salamander is around 9 inches long and is usually black or bluish-black in color. It has two uneven rows of spots along its head, body and tail, which look more orange in the head area and yellow along the rest of the salamander.

Spotted salamanders breed in the spring, laying their eggs in vernal, or temporary, pools. They return to the same pool each year to mate, using the same route to get there.