The salamandridae family.

Part two the great crested newt.

The great crested newt is the largest of all of the three British newts. They are found throughout the whole of Great Britain. They have dark brown backs and flanks, with large black warty spots on them. Their undersides are either yellow or orange in colour, with  large black blotches that are unique to each individual newt. You can tell the sexes apart from the size of their spots with males having the larger spots.The males can also be told apart from the females by their jagged crest that runs along their back during the breeding season, the crest is smaller along the tail which also has a silver line running along it. The females have no crest but do have a orange stripe running along tip of their tail. Like all newts they normally live on land but will return to their breeding pools to breed. Their breeding is similar to all other newts. After they have performed a courtship display, the male deposits spermataphore (a small packet of sperm) from his cloaca (reproductive and excretory opening) into her path. He will then move sideways in front of her to encourage her into position where the spermataphore will be picked up by her cloaca. No actual mating take place. The females then lays between two to three eggs a day on submerged aquatic plants between March and July. All of the eggs are wrapped carefully in individual leaves. The efts (larvae) hatch after about three weeks and live in the pond as aquatic predators feeding on tadpoles and worm and insect larvae. They are preyed on by fish, so they are rarely in rivers. lakes or garden ponds. After metamorphosis into air breathing juveniles after about four months, they live a mainly terristrial life. They may move up to eight hundred meters from the pond. After about two to three years they reach maturity and return to the same pond to breed. The young and the juveniles spend most of their time in dense cover outside of the breeding season which will include scrub,rough grassland and woodland, rocks and logs are perfect shelter for them. The adult is completely poisonous so is preyed on by very few things, but the efts are not so they will be eaten by fish, rats and grass snakes. They may live for about ten years in the wild. The juveniles and the adults feed on other newts, tadpoles, froglets, worms, insects larvae and water snails. Thet hibernate during winter under logs and rocks or in the mud at the bottom of their breeding pools. They are protected by law.