text: Geographic distribution The alpine salamander is found from the France–Switzerland border at the western end of its range, all the way through Austria to the Dinaric Alps at the eastern edge of its territory. This salamander typically lives at altitudes above  above sea level, even reaching  of elevation. The western Alps (in France and Italy) are inhabited by a similar species, Lanza's alpine salamander (Salamandra lanzai), in only one small area. S. atra generally live in forested biomes, particularly deciduous-coniferous mixes. They also can inhabit meadows or grasslands in the mountains, and tend to do well with a mix of tree types.
  Their range spans several nations, including: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Hersegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, France, Italy, Austria.
  Home range and territoriality
  They thrive in forest environments that have silver fir and beech trees. Coniferous forests that have high proportions of Norway spruce and European larch trees also provide adequate habitats, even though the salamanders live on the ground floor. Because alpine salamanders are completely terrestrial, they have on-land territories that they tend to return to throughout the day and for refuge. They often return to the same sites for much of their lives. Any time that they leave their sites, they expose themselves to predation and also to the chance of losing their site. Alpine salamanders are ectothermic, so losing a refuge or shelter could leave them exposed to the elements and be extremely costly, if not fatal, due their lack of an internal thermoregulation mechanism.