Letter From

Can you remember your first pet? Whatever it was, it is unlikely to have been a fire salamander. But it was exactly one such amphibian that was the first pet of David Attenborough, given to him by his father on his eighth birthday.

In David Attenborough's Life Stories, he casts back to this momentous time in his life and tells us about the natural history of this bizarre and ancient group of amphibians.

One of his vivid memories is of giving his own son a fire salamander - again, on his eighth birthday - and both witnessing, to their great surprise, the salamander giving birth to live young in a little pool in the enclosure; young that were later given as presents to the family's neighbours.

A very long-lived animal, the fire salamanders are still there - long after their children have left home.

Hardly the story of many of us, whose first pet was a hamster or guinea pig.