The coastal giant salamander is the largest salamander in Oregon, reaching about 14 inches long. Land-dwelling adults are stout, with a broad head, strong legs and dark brown skin marbled with tan. They spend most of their time out of sight in burrows and under logs, coming out on rainy nights to hunt on the forest floor and sometimes climbing a few feet up tree trunks.
Most people meet it as a larva. The young live in cold, clear streams for a year and a half to two years before they change, brown with a big head, bushy gills and a finned tail. Some never leave the water at all and grow to adult size while keeping their gills. Larvae eat insect larvae, snails and crayfish, and big ones take small fish and other salamanders. Adults on land will catch mice, shrews and even small snakes.
It is one of the few salamanders that makes noise. When threatened, an adult may arch its back, lash its tail and give a low bark or growl. It also needs clean water: it is far more common in streams without much silt and tends to decline after old forest is logged. Look for larvae in shaded mountain creeks, and watch for adults crossing trails on wet nights.
How to identify it
Adults are heavy-bodied, up to about 14 inches long, with a broad head, a short blunt snout and dark brown skin marbled with tan or lighter brown; the belly is pale. Larvae are brown and big-headed, with frilly gills and a finned tail.
Look-alikes
Cope's giant salamander lives in the same kinds of streams. Its larvae are smaller, with a narrower head and shorter legs, and its adults usually keep their gills and stay in the water, reaching only about 8 inches.
Habitat
Cold, clear streams with gravel and boulder bottoms in moist conifer forest, plus the damp forest floor nearby. Larvae need permanent streams with little silt, and the species does best in shaded, unlogged forest.
Photos
Sightings in the forest
157 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on October 10, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →