Batrachoseps nigriventris
Silhouette: C. Camilo Julián-Caballero · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-bellied Slender Salamander sighting in Los Angeles on a given day, based on 293 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 4th most-seen of the 8 amphibians we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November to April
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-bellied Slender Salamander in Los Angeles on a given day, against under 5% in May to October, the lowest months. Those are among Los Angeles's wettest months, with about 50 mm of rain a month against almost none in June.
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 Los Angeles, in our data
Los Angeles is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Black-bellied Slender Salamander sightings: about 10% 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 Los Angeles (293 verified sightings), 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.
