University installs ramps to ensure salamanders’ safe migration

Physical Facilities workers at Binghamton University have built and will install over 30 ramps on campus to aid with the annual migration of yellow-spotted salamanders.

On the first warm, moist night of March each spring, yellow-spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum), which can reach up to 10 inches in length, start emerging from the soil in Binghamton University’s College-in-the Woods residential community, according to Nature Preserve Steward Dylan Horvath. “Mysteriously, they know the time and direction to move. They cross the Connector Road to migrate to the water of the ditch, pond and vernal pools of the Nature Preserve,” said Horvath.

“Students documenting the individual salamanders for the last six years have catalogued 80+ individuals, but we certainly haven’t found them all,” said Horvath. “When I was a graduate student, we had some great migrations where I counted 75 in one night.”

In past years, after dropping down into the road, the salamanders were unable to scale the curb. Faculty from the Biological Sciences Department tracked the salamanders and found that they were likely getting hit by cars and having a difficult time climbing roadside curbs, especially the females, who are heavy with eggs.

The new ramps will allow the creatures to continue their trek unhindered, and the road is kept closed to traffic until the migration is over. Ramps will be cut into the curbs to avoid being damaged by snow plows in the winter. Previous ramps, installed in the ‘90s, were not efficient and created an obstacle for snowplows during the winter months.