A win in the work to save a super-rare Georgia animal

A wild frosted flatwoods salamander in gloved hands.
Frosted flatwoods salamanders were once more widespread in the Southeast, but they now live in two parks in Florida — the wild one shown here is in one of those — and a single wetland at the U.S. Army's Fort Stewart in Georgia. (Mark Mandica/Amphibian Foundation)

A conservation success is taking shape at an Atlanta non-profit. It’s an early step — but a major one — in the effort to save a super-rare Southern species from extinction.

It’s not a fuzzy or cuddly creature, or big and majestic, either.

But still, biologist Harold Mitchell said, “There’s something to be said for the little creepy crawlies.”

Frosted flatwoods salamanders spend most of their lives underground. Experts on the threatened species consider them enigmatic, and no one has been able to breed them in captivity until now. (Mark Mandica/Amphibian Foundation)