The Northern Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus fuscus) is the only tailed amphibian found so far at Hilton Pond Center. The species is widely distributed across all the uplands of the Carolinas, where they inhabit streams and wet bottomlands and ravines. (The specimen above was found beneath an old wooden plank on the edge of Hilton Pond.) This 2.5- to 5.5-inch salamander is highly variable in appearance; some individuals are buff-colored, and others have a bright wavy-edge band on their backs.

Northern Dusky Salamanders lay a cluster of about two dozen eggs in rotten logs or soil crevices, and sometimes on the undersides of submerged rocks. The female stays with the eggs until hatch.

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