Inside the effort to save one of America's most imperiled salamanders

Frosted flatwoods salamanders, or "frosties" as they're lovingly called, are one of the most imperiled amphibians in the U.S. Nathan Rott/NPR hide caption toggle caption Nathan Rott/NPR NEAR TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Nicole Dahrouge is not a salamander. Crouched in a bog, hands searching through short grass, she states it aloud for the second time in the last hour, almost like an affirmation. "I mean, I'm not a salamander," she says. "But if I was, I would lay eggs right there." There's always a bit of urgency collecting frosted flatwoods salamander eggs. The tiny and secretive ground-dwelling salamander is one of the most imperiled amphibians in North America, teetering on the brink of what biologists call an " extinction vortex " — the point at which a plant or animal's population is so small that its problems start to fatally compound. Dahrouge's job at the Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy (ARC) is to keep the "frosties," as they're lovingly called, from slipping over that precipice to the point of no return; to bolster their population and buy them time to adapt to the fast-changing world. That starts with duck-walking through clingy brush to find their eggs. "It's just like the world's itchiest scavenger hunt interspersed with little periodic injections of serotonin when you find something fun," she says, rubber boots squelching in damp earth. Frosted flatwoods salamanders lay their eggs at the base of plants in ephemeral ponds. It's a delicate edge. …