Batrachoseps nigriventris
Silhouette: C. Camilo Julián-Caballero · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The black-bellied slender salamander (Batrachoseps nigriventris) is a small species of salamander that is endemic to California. This salamander prefers California chaparral and woodlands habitats of Coast live oak - Quercus agrifolia and California sycamore - Platanus racemosa.
The black-bellied slender salamander is about 3.1 to 4.3 cm long. It has a worm-like body, a small head and small limbs, and a long cylindrical tail, often twice the length of its body. The black-bellied slender salamander can have a black, tan, reddish, brown or beige dorsum often with a contrasting broad mid-dorsal stripe of similar colors. It has a purplish or black venter with fine light speckling over the entire surface.
This species will coil its body and tail when handled; it is fragile and easily injured. Batrachoseps nigriventis looks similar to the related species Batrachoseps pacificus and Batrachoseps gabrieli. These salamanders reproduce by laying eggs, which are usually buried underground and thus rarely seen. The diet of the black-bellied salamander is poorly documented but is probably similar to the diet of the garden slender... Wikipedia →
Recording0:21
United States · 2025
© Micah S · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Black-bellied Slender Salamander sighting in Channel Islands National Park on a given day, based on 53 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 2nd most-seen of the 5 amphibians we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and February
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Black-bellied Slender Salamander in Channel Islands National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June and August–October, the lowest months. Those are among Channel Islands National Park's wettest months, with about 55 mm of rain a month against almost none in July.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-bellied Slender Salamander sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Channel Islands National Park, in our data
Channel Islands National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Black-bellied Slender Salamander sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-bellied Slender Salamander is recorded against all the amphibians logged in Channel Islands National Park (53 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
