On the prowl: Nessie the tiger salamander becomes ambassador for Prairie Wildlife Rehab Centre

A tiger (salamander) was on the prowl in the CBC studio with Information Radiohost Marcy MarkusaFriday morning.

Nessieis the first salamander to become aneducational ambassador of the Prairie Wildlife Rehab Centre.

The amphibian will travelto classrooms throughout the province to help teach young students about her species, and the differences between them and reptiles such as lizards, turtles and snakes.

Nessiealso will help teach peopleabout the difficulties wildlife face in Manitoba.

There are different subspecies of tiger salamanders in Manitoba: the grey tiger and east tiger. The grey tiger salamander population in Manitoba is stable, but the east tiger salamander is endangered in the province, said Caroline Fillion, education co-ordinator and facilitator of the Prairie Wildlife Rehab Centre.

"We don't know if Nessie is an east tiger or a grey tiger, because they're quite similar looking; it's a difference in pattern," Fillionsaid.

Nessie was taken to the rehab centre about a year ago by a teacher whose young students had found the salamander in a dried-out pond.

When she was found, Nessie was at the juvenile stage of her life, Fillionsaid. By that time, salamanders develop gills that letthem breathe under water, like fish.

The rehab centre took care of her over the winter and had planned to release her last spring, but they were told the pond Nessie came from had been filled in, plusno one would tell them exactly where it was, shesaid.

This is an issue because when salamanders became adults, they spend much of their time on the land, but females will return to their pond to have babies.

"We can't return her to the wild because of that," Fillion said.

The rehab centre also cannot release Nessie in a new locationbecause she might introduce bacteria that is foreign to that area.

Nessie belongs toone of four species of salamandersthat live inManitoba, but Fillion said people likely won't see them because one species lives in the water, and the other three live in borrows underground and are mostly nocturnal.

Nessie is not the only educational ambassador of the Prairie Wildlife Rehab Centre: there areowls, snakes, a raven and a fox.