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Texas Blind Salamander | Daily Animal Facts

Animal profile

Texas Blind Salamander

Eurycea rathbuni

AmphibiaWater-filled limestone caves and aquifer conduitsVulnerable

Field profile

The Texas blind salamander is a small, ghost-white cave salamander with external gills, long spindly limbs and no functional eyes. It lives entirely within the water-filled voids of the Edwards Aquifer and is known from a handful of access points. It is federally listed as endangered in the United States.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2024-05-30

Texas Blind Salamander

This salamander lives inside an aquifer

The Texas blind salamander has no habitat above ground at all. Its entire world is the water inside the Edwards Aquifer, and biologists see it mostly when the current pushes individuals out through springs and wells.

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