The race is on to save Quebec’s elusive, rare spring salamander [Video]

Conservation groups in Quebec are trying to save a rare, endangered salamander before it’s too late. But the first step is finding the reclusive amphibian.

“It’s hours and hours of flipping rocks and then finally we find one. There’s always that joy,” said Laura Molina as she searched a cold creek near Saint-Ferdinand, Que., about 200 kilometres east of Montreal.

Molina is a project manager with Le Groupe de concertation des bassins versants de la zone Bécancour (GROBEC), a group that strives to protect the Bécancour river watersheds. Backed by the Quebec and federal governments, she has been counting the spring salamander population in the Chaudière-Appalaches region for about two weeks.

The colourful species can grow up to 23 centimetres long. It’s one of the largest salamanders without lungs or gills. It breathes through its skin, and can live up to 10 years.

Environment and Climate Change Canada published a spring salamander management plan in 2013, …