• Question: Have you ever seen a newt

    Asked by anon-357651 on 15 Mar 2023.
    • Photo: Andrew Wood

      Andrew Wood answered on 15 Mar 2023: last edited 15 Mar 2023 12:34 pm

      I have, and they used to live in my garden when I was growing up! They are really really cool animals to see, and to watch them swimming and growing up is really awesome! You should always be careful when you see them though as some are endangered and I think for some require a special license to handle them? But newts are really cool, and they are amphibians just like frogs and toads.

    • Photo: Alexandra Milliken

      Alexandra Milliken answered on 15 Mar 2023:

      Yes!
      They are pretty cool and always remind me of Matlida (gotta love a Newt for scaring Miss Trunchball !!).
      You can find them at many nature reserves that have a pond, if you are interested you should check out your local reserve as sometimes they have sessions on for people to search for newts🦎.

    • Photo: Martin Vickers

      Martin Vickers answered on 15 Mar 2023:

      Yes, we sometimes have newts in our garden pond. We should expect to start seeing them at the moment as it is around this time of year, along with Frogs and Toads, they they come out of hibernation.

    • Photo: Phil Howell

      Phil Howell answered on 15 Mar 2023:

      Lots – usually in garden ponds but also in other ponds on farms or in woodland.

    • Photo: Ian Adams

      Ian Adams answered on 29 Mar 2023:

      Yes have seen newts around ponds. Have you heard of the great crested newt? It is a rare species found in the UK. To protect it you aren’t allowed to build over ponds where they live. Any house builder needs to check ponds on their land for great crested newts before building. This used to be done by trying to trap them or just sitting and watching but this disturbs them and can be very time consuming as they are very shy. We now do a PCR test a bit like the one for COVID. Newts living in a pond shed skin cells and eggs into the water and we can detect this “environmental DNA” or eDNA. You can use similar methods to look for fish in lakes or even mammals on dry land.

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