You’re not gonna believe this one! See description for more 👇👇👇

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]So, I'm here with the red eft, a species of salamander that underos one of the most remarkable metamorphoses in the natural world. The red eft is the immature terrestrial life stage of the eastern n. The eastern n is the species of salamander that you'll see like floating in ponds. If you caught them in your hands when you were a kid, by the time an eastern n reaches adulthood, it may be 9 years old. So, an eastern n goes through three life stages. The adults breed in these bodies of water and they hatch into these larvi live in that body of water for a few months before transforming into these guys, the red eft. So these larvae turn orange, they grow arms and legs and they leave the pond and go live as a terrestrial salamander for years. At the shortest, this could be just about one year. At the longest, it could be 8 years. The reason that they're orange is because they're toxic. And they're doing what's called advertising toxicity, which all kinds of different poisonous critters and mimics do, which is where they don't try to hide or camouflage. They tell the world, "I'm toxic. Don't eat me." In their adult stage, by the way, Eastern NES are also a little bit toxic, and they advertise that through those orange spots. So, after usually 2 to 3 years, but as long as 8 years, these eastern nes return to a body of water and become adults. And that's when they become the eastern nes that we all know and love.

[00:01:10]But it's crazy to think that for every one of these nuts you see floating in this pond, it's undergone this incredible transformation. Remarkable.

[00:01:17]My book, The Forest Year: Finding Hope in a World Worth Saving, is now available for pre-order. Pre-order it at your local independent book seller at ethanapper.com/forestyear or at the link in my bio.