Using home made hibernicular

[morg]

T cristatus at entrance to hibernicular.

I built a new hibernicular in the garden this year for newts, and for the last few weeks, after dark, have seen great crested newt adults, and juveniles exiting the hibernicular to hunt for food.
Hard to get a pic, hence the quality of this one.

 

[colin]

Hi Morg,
how did you go about making the hibernacula for your garden?

Any idea if the juvies follow the adults about? i am interested in a theory that this is how juvies find out where to hibernate. I am partly working on a translocation up here...

 

[morg]

Colin
I cannot say if the juvenile newts follow the adults around, only that I have seen both leaving, and entering the entrance to the hibernicular.
This particular hibernicular was made, by firstly digging out a hole in the ground,roughly 4 foot deep, and 5 foot in circumference.
In to this I put rocks and logs to 6inches from the surface.
This was covered with overturned turf, soil, the finally rocks and plants on the surface.
It has two entrances which are both angled firstly upwards to stop flooding, then downward to the log and rock section.

 

[benjamin]

My house has a cellar that serves as a hibernicular, I find newts hibernating in it every winter, out side the winter it serves as a place were newts can hunt in the dark both day and night. It would be interesting if wildlife gardening magazines started including a section on making hibernating places for amphibians and reptiles. If people had both ponds and hibernaculars for them, newts and frogs and toads, wouldn't have to cross deadly roads as much.

 

[joseph]

I'll have to try one. So rain going in is bad?

 

[al]

Very cool Morg! I am envious, though. I used to have a garden pond with a lesser version of a hibernicular near it. I moved 3 years ago and have not had the funds to start another project.
I did have many anurans, but was not there long enough to see any caudates taking up residence. A. maculatum and Notopthalmus sp. are frequent visitors to garden ponds around this area.
Do you have any problems with predators? Believe it or not, we are seeing a rise in predatory birds in this area. I have an established great horned owl family in my neighborhood and have spotted them perched over wet areas scoping out frogs. It freaked my wife out the first couple of nights we were here and actually heard them! Coming from the suberbs, it was some getting used to.

 

[morg]

Other than blackbirds catching and eating frog tadpoles from the edges of the ponds in summer, the only predators are the neighbours pet cats.
The garden is designed with amphibians in mind though, so there are hardly any areas in which a newt or frog cannot escape undercover very quickly.

 

[benjamin]

I wish I could kill my neighbors cat. It goes into my basement to look for amphibians I've caught it in the act twice, once it was tormenting a toad. Next time I catch it the neighbor won't be seeing it ever again!!!!! (just kidding) They should make it Illegal for people to keep their cats running around outside, just like you can't let a dog go outside.

 

[joseph]

Ben: I agree on that. They also leave ID cards behind...or otherwise bury them for an unpleasant surprise.

A few times we had egrets and earlier a green heron come into our yard for fish.