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This page is about the episode. For the species of salamander, see Fire Salamander.
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"The Cobra King" "Cheeks the Hamster"

"Fire Salamander" is the 5th episode of Season 5 of the PBS Kids show Wild Kratts. It is the 121st episode of the series overall. It premiered on November 8, 2017.

Synopsis[]

After seeing a fire salamander crawling out of a fire in the Black Forest, the Kratt brothers set off to solve the mystery of the fire salamander's life cycle. They also have to stop Donita and Dabio from capturing 1,000 of them for her bodysuit plan, and even save Chris.

Plot[]

The episode opens with the Kratt brothers walking through a mature forest in North America. They turn over a log to find a pair of spotted salamanders who had recently become adults. Before that, the salamanders lived in the water, using external gills on the sides of their heads to breathe. As they got older, the immature salamanders lost their gills, developed lungs, and grew legs before emerging from the water. The brothers then wonder what it would be like to have salamander powers and the show transitions into the cartoon segment.

Chris and Martin Kratt are hiking through the Black Forest of Germany just as the last light of day descends into the horizon. Chris can already feel the chill of night start to get to him. So he and his brother pitch their tent and set up a campfire. As the brothers warm up by the flames, strange shadows start to dance across the forest floor. Who knows what creatures those shadows belong to? And not knowing plagues Martin and Chris's hearts with fear. And then, a tiny creature starts crawling out of the fire and the bros cower behind the log they were sitting on. Mustering up their courage, the two brothers peer over the log and find to their surprise, that it's a salamander. Martin believes that it might be a fire salamander which he's read about in an ancient text. So he pulls it out of his backpack and reads it to his younger brother. According to the text, fire salamanders are born from burning wood and are virtually impervious to even the hottest flames. Martin then names the two salamanders that crawled out the campfire Flame and Sparker while Chris looks up fire salamanders in a book on amphibians. If the legend of fire salamanders being fireproof is true, then that's a power the Kratt brothers are eager to have. So they call the Wild Kratts crew so that they can figure the mystery out together.

Meanwhile, Donita Donata is in her jet trying to come up with an idea for her newest creation while get henchman Dabio taps into the Wild Kratts' communication terminal. As he does, he heard the Kratt brothers talking about fire salamanders and their supposed tolerance to flames. Immediately, Donita's interest is peaked. She's inspired to create a fireproof bodysuit composed of fire salamander skin. In order to bring this vision to life, the evil fashion designer requires 1,000 fire salamanders so she and Dabio immediately high-tail it to Germany.

Back in the Black Forest, Chris happens upon an epiphany. Fire salamanders being impervious to fire goes against everything that he and Martin know about salamanders since they need water to survive, not fire. All salamanders, no matter what the species rely on having cool, moist skin. It doesn't make sense for any salamander to withstand fire, especially since their highly sensitive to heat. It's time to get the bottom of this creature mystery.

So the brothers venture deeper into the Black Forest to follow their salamander friends and observe their behaviors. They watch Flame and Sparker eat a slug and a spider with their sticky tongues and Martin notices how salamanders use their eyes to swallow their food. Chris doesn't understand until his big brother explains. Salamander eyeballs are attached to their esophagus so when they gulp, the salamander's eyes push the prey they caught with their vomerine teeth into their stomach. Just then, Chris is laughing from something tickling him which turns out to be a European hedgehog. Unfortunately, hedgehogs are one of the fire salamander's natural predators. But just as the hedgehog is about to eat Flame, he sprays something in her face, causing her to retreat. Upon further analysis, the brothers discover that fire salamanders have a defensive poison that they squirt from a gland behind their neck. In fact, that black and yellow pattern advertises just how nasty they taste. While Aviva incorporates a chemical defense for Fire Salamander Power, the bros are are still trying to wrap their heads around the salamander's supposed fire impervious ability. In regards of a salamander's life cycle from egg to tadpole to adult, the most essential thing salamanders need is water. There's no way fire should be included in that. The Kratt brothers are stumped!

Characters[]

Animals[]

Animation[]

Note: Featured animals are in bold.

Computer Images[]

Live Action[]

Note: Live action animals are linked to Wikipedia.

Trivia[]

  • This is the second episode to feature an amphibian, the first being "Aquafrog".
  • This is their first episode in Europe, but without a new creature power suit.
  • This is the first time that Aviva uses the Peregrine Falcon Power Suit.
    • Starting from this episode, Aviva's Creature Power Suit and Gloves are adapted to her body structure.
  • This episode shows that Donita's mannequins can be put back together, unlike Zachbots.
  • This is the sixth time that Aviva has activated a Creature Power Suit.
  • This is the first time Donita captures Chris.
  • It is revealed Martin carries around ancient texts in his backpack.
  • This is the first time Donita has tried to kill the animals she captured, as she wanted to skin the salamanders to use in her fire-proof bodysuit.
    • Ironically, had her plan worked, it would have resulted in her downfall as well, as she would have been burned during her fashion show.

Key Facts and Creature Moments[]

  • Fire salamanders use their eyeballs to swallow their food.
  • Fire salamanders use their long sticky tongues to capture prey like insects.
  • Fire salamanders are brightly coloured to warn predators that they are poisonous.
  • A fire salamander spraying poison into a hedgehog's face as a defense mechanism.
  • Salamanders can swim using their tails as paddles to propel them underwater, with their limbs held to their sides.
  • Fire salamanders like to hide in cool wet wood. The reason why they appear to emerge from fire is because they are escaping the heat. They aren't immune to fire as their name suggests. The myth of salamanders being associated with being born from fire comes from this heat escaping behavior.
  • Similar to frogs, salamanders have a life cycle involving laying soft eggs in water, from which their young hatch from. Baby salamanders have a tadpole-like larva stage with gills, once they start growing up they will lose their gills and grow limbs to turn into adults that can live on land.
  • Spanish ribbed newts have a unique defense mechanism, in which they can stick their toxin coated ribs out of their body to pierce predators who try to eat them. (Explained in the live action segment)
Wild Kratts episodes
Seasons: 1234567
Season 1

"Mom of a Croc" • "Whale of a Squid" • "Aardvark Town" • "Flight of the Draco" • "Mystery of the Squirmy Wormy" • "Platypus Cafe" • "Polar Bears Don't Dance" • "Build It Beaver" • "Voyage of the Butterflier XT" • "Honey Seekers" • "Bass Class" • "Fireflies" • "Mystery of the Weird Looking Walrus" • "Tazzy Chris" • "Octopus Wildkratticus" • "Walk on the Wetside" • "Elephant in the Room" • "Let the Rhinos Roll!" • "Kickin' It With the Roos" • "The Blue and the Gray" • "Falcon City" • "Koala Balloon" • "Cheetah Racer" • "Kerhonk" • "Mimic" • "Caracal-Minton" • "Zig-Zagged" • "A Huge Orange Problem" • "Seasquatch" • "The Food Chain Game" • "Masked Bandits" • "Flight of the Pollinators" • "The Gecko Effect" • "Little Howler" • "Quillber's Birthday Present" • "A Bat in the Brownies" • "Stuck on Sharks" • "Birds of a Feather" • "Googly Eye: The Night Guru" • "Raptor Round Up"

Season 7

"Outfoxed" • "Clever the Raven" • "Owl Odyssey" • "Race to Goat Mountain" • "Backpack the Camel" • "No Name Dream" • "A Fish Out of Water" • "Our Blue and Green World" • "Bumblezzzz" • TBA • "Salamander Streaming" • "Chimpanzee And Me" • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA

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