California Tiger Salamander

This endangered species has a new lease on life, in the form of a 73-square-mile stretch of the Santa Rosa Plain.

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Photo By: John Cleckler / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Reversing a decision made in 2005 under the Bush Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated over 47,000 acres (roughly 73 square miles) as critical habitat for the California tiger salamander, an endangered species.

The decision was prompted by a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, which noted that the designated habitat would protect not only California tiger salamanders, but "thousands of species" and "ensure that this beautiful area isn't entirely paved over with strip malls."

Like many amphibians, these salamanders breed in vernal pools — shallow pools that form in spring and dry up by summer. The young born in these pools have time to develop in the absence of predators, like fish that live in permanent ponds. As the pools dry up, California tiger salamanders move underground, occupying burrows made by small mammals in California's grasslands and oak forests. Other amphibians take to the trees or forest floor.

> Related: 11 Recently Extinct Species

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