Cave of Geotriton
Faunal area of the Italian geotriton
The Cave
The Italian geotriton (Speleomantes italicus), a species currently considered monotypic, is endemic to northern and central Apennine Italy. Its range is included between the provinces of Lucca and Reggio nell’Emilia and the province of Pescara. In the Apuan Alps it goes up to almost 1600 m.
The presence in Abruzzo, where the southern limit of diffusion is located, has been known since 1950, but the distribution known today is still incomplete and the reported populations are few in number, so as to make observations difficult and reports of individuals in non-fissuricolous habitats exceptional.
The Abruzzo localities of this species mostly concern natural underground cavities in transitional carbonate geological formations; only one locality is known for the arenaceous-marly geological formation that characterizes the Laga area. The population of Colle Pelato (Tossicia) is also located in the richly fissured marly-arenaceous area, which however is the only one found in Abruzzo in an extra-fissuric area (under rotting tree trunks). The altitudinal range is between 560 and 1475 m of altitude.
The Italian geotritone appears in the appendix III of the Berne Convention, in the appendices B and D of the Habitats Directive, is considered “vulnerable” in the Red Book of the W.W.F. and is protected by the Regional Law n. 50 “First interventions for the defense of biodiversity in the Abruzzo Region: protection of the so-called minor fauna”, which in addition to mentioning it by name, protects all the faunal population of the Abruzzo caves. Heavy administrative penalties deriving from illegal capture, killing, detention or more or less irreversible alteration of habitats. Due to its underground habits and reproduction completely free from water, the Italian geotriton is less affected by changes in the external environment than other amphibians. However, isolated causes of threat can be represented by the destruction of the environment in which it lives, for example as a consequence of the opening and activity of quarries, the construction of roads, the expansion of buildings for residential and tourist purposes, etc. However, the species in Abruzzo is certainly threatened by the excessive uptake of spring waters which alters the groundwater circulation system.
The most numerous population of this species in Abruzzo is present in Farindola, in the Grotta del Geotritone, located in the Valle d’Angri near the Cascata del Vitello d’Oro, a cavity dug into the rock which has been re-naturalized to favor the settlement and the reproduction of this small amphibian. The population of Geotritone italico is affected by the slightest alterations of its natural habitat, in fact the pollution and the destruction of the breeding sites are a serious threat to their survival. The use of the cave through guided tours and strictly limited numbers, so as not to cause disturbance and above all not to alter the temperature of the cave.