Question about N.v.viridescens in the wild.

[joel]

hey, folks. I've been wandering the woods for the past couple weeks, seeing what wildlife I can find to observe. (a hobby of mine) Anyways, a couple weeks ago, I sat on a beaver house and peered into the shallow end of a pond to find a literal horde of Notos crawling around the bottom of the pond.

I've been back a few times since, and the peeper frogs have come out in abundance, there's the odd bullfrog around, and there's a TON of leeches swimming around. Are any of these predators of eastern newts? Or have they perhaps retreated into more plant filled waters since the water level rose quite a bit? (the planty waters were above the water line when I seen the notos.) Also I believe there's many clusters of yellow spotted salamander eggs, which are a nice sight to see.

So my big question is, I seen them then, but don't now....where'd all the newts go?

 

[iced01]

Maybe it has something to do with the end of mating season, because if you saw a horde of N.Viridescens then they couldn't have all been eaten. The "mating season" for my red spotted newt ended about 2 weeks ago, but it's probably different in your neck of the woods.

So the newts are probably hiding, or you just came at the wrong time of day.

 

[joel]

Mating season is possible, where would they be hiding though? It's not exactly a small pond, and they are an aquatic species, I'm pretty sure they couldn't have just wandered away. My concern is maybe their numebrs thinned out due to predation from something? I know they are not too appetizing, but might leeches attack them?

I'm pretty sure I seen tehm during mating season, as the plants were pretty loaded with newt eggs.

So, if they're still there...where? Under rocks at the bottom, in deeper waters...what is typical noto habitat when not in mating season?

 

[iced01]

My guess is in the cooler/shaded part of the pond. But at a local pond I know of the newts hang out inside of the underwater grass/weeds so they aren't visible until they move.

 

[iced01]

Also N.v.viridecsens is one of the more toxic species.

 

[joel]

This is a larrge pond...more of a small lake, made by beavers... There's this nice shallow area perfect for hatchlnigsa of all sorts which is a foot to about 4 feet deep, seperated from the main pond by a channel about 4 feet wide. The main pool has shallow parts near shore, but gets as deep or deeper than 8 feet. Could the newts be on the bottom of that area, now that i ebt they're done breeding? I watch the shallow sub-pond quite a bit, but only see tadpoles and leeches in the underwater vegetation. And the odd enormous bullfrog. I'd like to catch some of these guys later on this year, but can't do so if I can't find them... any more information on N.v.v behaviour in the wild?

The first time i seen them, they were walking around no the silty bottom of the pool, no vegetation, then the waters rose and engulfed a couple vertical feet of land, and the vegetation on it..... they could be there, I just can't find them if tehy are.

Anyways, thanks Iced01, your replies have been quite informative, but I still can't seem to find the little guys.

 

[iced01]

I was at a local pond just yesterday and found a couple in the aquatic plants. You won't be able to see them unless they move, they blend in well.

 

[joel]

I was back out a few days ago and spotted two...

One was small, maybe jsut an eft who was morphing into adult, perhaps a smaller yellow spotted salamander thoguh, sicne they hatch in water. His amrking were indistinct, and tail was not yet paddle-shaped.

The other was the biggest newt I ever seen, though it was dead, and very stiff. I first mistook it for a dead fish, as it was between 6 and 8 inches, a mammoth for an N.v.viridescens, I realize. It had no predation marks upon it, and was starting to take a pasty white gloss to it's skin... Any idea why this one might have died? we did have a cold snap a few nights before.

And one more question, what happens to dead newts? does anything eat them dead or alive? or is it a bacteria colony waiting to form or something? Just...they're so toxic, and I have never thought of it before.