End of the season newt count.

R

roger

Guest
Another season of amphibian spotting has come and almost gone. I saw my first newt on 3/21 and my last on 10/31(were they trick or treating?). This year my girlfriend and I kept a running tally of our encounters and have a grand total of 5362 newts counted in 2004. We did not keep a record of the other salamander species that we found, but there were lots of lungless types (northern two line, redback, dusky) and 1 yellow spotted.
It was a good season for caudates overall in New York, since the weather was cool and wet.
 
That's probably more than most of us here will ever see in a lifetime!

Last Wednesday, I rented a car for $60, drove for 6 hours roundtrip, spent $35 in highway toll fees, and later had to shell out $200 for denting the door of my rental car on a guard rail, all in a unsuccessful effort to show a European guest some Onychodactylus japonicus larvae in the wild
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(this after having already shown him O. j adults and larvae in captivity).

How I envy those with easy access to the great outdoors!

Anyway, here's hoping you have even better luck in 2005!
 
Thanks! I am hoping that in 2005 we can keep track of the other caudates that we see on a regular basis. I agree that I am fortunate to have several good spots within easy driving distance. Some can be quite spectacular on a rainy day. Our highest one day count this year was over 600 efts on a relatively short hike in a local nature preserve.
 
I visited a location in California earlier this year where I reckon I could easily have found a couple hundred slender salamanders -- if I had looked under enough logs. But after a while, I began to worry about the effect of my disturbance of their microhabitats on both the newts and their prey items. Mind you, this was a very dry area and it seemed the only place for them to survive was under these logs. Of course, I didn't "flip" the logs and I did try to replace them to where and as they were, but it still didn't seem to be a good idea to continue. I suppose it's a bit different out east where it's nice and wet almost year-round
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    does anyone know how to care for mud salamanders:)thanks.
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  • thenewtster:
    hello
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  • thenewtster:
    how long do mud salamanders live
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    im new to the salamaner comunity
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    hey guys, again im resarching mud salamander babys and there care:)
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  • Katia Del Rio-Tsonis:
    Dear All, I would appreciate some help identifying P. waltl disease and treatment. We received newts from Europe early November and a few maybe 3/70 had what it looked like lesions under the legs- at that time we thought maybe it was the stress of travel- now we think they probably had "red leg syndrome" (see picture). However a few weeks later other newts started to develop skin lesions (picture enclosed). The sender recommended to use sulfamerazine and we have treated them 2x and we are not sure they are all recovering. Does anyone have any experience with P. waltl diseases and could give some input on this? Any input would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
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  • Katia Del Rio-Tsonis:
    sorry I am having a hard time trying to upload the pictures- I have them saved on my hard drive... any suggestions-the prompts here are not allowing for downloads that way as far as I can tell. Thanks
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    Katia Del Rio-Tsonis: sorry I am having a hard time trying to upload the pictures- I have them saved on my hard... +1
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