What Got You Hooked?

[bob]

Hi folks. I grew up in a suburban part of a big city, but nearby we had a series of rail lines interconnecting, with some waste ground hidden between them, including some ponds. I remember well looking for the usual toads under logs when I found my very first newt - a triturus helveticus. Now the Scottish Gaelic word for newt is translated as "berry among the rushes", and I could quite see why it deserved that description.

I had already seen lizards and credited this little beast with the same turn of speed, so I made a dive and cupped it in my hands - I was therefore surprised at how slow it moved and how easily it could be caught.

I was probably aroung five or six years old, and didn't have a clue how to care for my new "pet" but fortunately an enlightened neighbour (a school teacher) showed me how to catch small worms and feed it. Later still, I was able to buy a pair of rubber boots and ventured into a pond, where I found members of the same species in "wet mode". I identified them through the "I spy" countryside book for kids (any UK member remember those) and was able to observe them displaying and eventually breeding.

The ponds were eventually drained by the railway authorities, but some years later as a PR officer for the railway (as I later became) I got the engineers to reflood them and had them re-stocked as a conservation project. I got a license to breed Triturus Cristasis as a side product.

Under British law they can't now build on this land because of these newts, so the habitat of my youth is protected.

 

[nicole]

Great story!

 

[kaysie]

As a baby, I constantly stuck my tongue out (I have pictures). My parents, being non-herpetologists, started calling me Newt from the getgo. 20something years later, and the name still sticks, and I've picked up the animals to live up to it.

 

[heather]

One of my older sisters is allergic to everything with hair/fur/feathers and so my mother allowed me to pursue my love of animals with the more creepy crawley types. A newt joined my collection when I was in 5th grade, and lasted longer than all the other lizards, toads and frogs. Once that allergic sister moved out of the house I was allowed to get a dog and lost interest in getting any more herps (it was just too hard to keep them warm in my basement bedroom), but I still had that newt. Years later I found a book by Jordan Patterson called "Newts: Their Care in Captivity." Though the book is not the best source of care info, the great pics - some by our very own R.D. Bartlett - resparked my interest. I went online to find more info and discovered the Kingsnake forums. From questions I asked on that forum I was directed to a much better forum by another user who went by the name "Jennewt." Since I have learned more about these amazing animals from tips and ideas by all you great people, my interest in these creatures has quadrupled - and they even LIKE cold basements!
Heather

 

[jacob]

I've always been interested in wildlife. Especially the low to the ground crawling types. But i can vividly remember my first experience with salamanders in the wild. I was maybe 17. I was with some friends doing the typical stuff 17 year old kids do. We were all hanging out with my friend who lives in Columbus, Ohio while his parents were out of town. Well, on that Saturday we decided to have an all day hike. We ended up taking (i think) 71 South about an hour and stopped at this big park. We set off on our hike, staying off the trails (I'm not a "trails" kind of person) and we came to this gourge. There was this really awesome waterfall, and at the bottom was this little pool, all misty and fantasy like. Plants, mushrooms, like something straight out of the movie "Ferngully," you know. So my friend goes to the water's edge and says "Wow, what are those? Tadpoles?" I come up and see DOZENS of larval Salamanders in the water. At the time i didn't know much about them, i just knew they were baby salamanders, but given the time of year it was, and the locale, they were probably Jefferson's or Spotties. Anyways, it was really awesome and i've loved them and hunted for them any chance i got since that day.

 

[crystal]

Well as you can tell with my username, I am an animal lover! I have ever since I could talk wanted to be a vet or vet assistant! I used to go hiking and camping with my grandma in Oregon, and would always find these beautiful Salamanders! I always wanted one, but only watched them, as I knew enough to not take a wild animal from its own habitat! Well my sister and I were working outside in KY and we found a red salamader, and brought him inside and put him in a little plastic box, and got leaves and dirt and branches from where we found him, we got online and immediatly went searching for info on these little guys, I of course fell in love with him, but as i mentioned before knew that you can't take an animal from its natural habitat so I sent him back home!

I then started searching for newts or salamanders that were good pets and were sold in pet stores, I couldn't find ANY for a few months around here so I gave up my search, figureing that they may be illegal to own in this state. I was at my local pet store helping my sister look for some dwarf frogs for her betta tank, and we came across these ADORABLE! FBN's! I went right the the "critter" section of the store and bought a big tank with a platform which also came with a small under water filter for them, and bought food, and a few fake plants to put up in their tank. I went home, set up the tank with some left over gravel I had had for my other fish tanks, and then went to searching, I had the tank set-up and filter running, it took me 2 days of research to make sure I was ready to get a few of these newts, I had first planned on getting Newts and frogs (2 of each) as that is what were housed together in the pet store, but then I read otherwise! So I decided I was going to get 2 newts, I went to the store, and there were about 6-7 in the tank I picked out 2, and then I saw this one that was just SOO adorable, and I decided to get him to, and then just as I was getting ready to tell the lady that was it, one stood up on its back legs, and put its "hands" on the glass, and decided I just HAD to get him/her as well, so that is how I got the four I have now, and have only had them about a week, and am planning to buy some more tanks for frogs, and more newts if I can find anymore! It doesn't take long to get me hooked on ANY animal!

 

[rodrigo]

Nice topic n_n

I got hooked when i was about 6. I used to spend all my holidays in my mother´s village, and except when i was sleeping or eating....i was in the streams and ponds of the nearby forests catching everything i could see. Then one days while trying to catch some tadpoles a male L.helveticus came into the jar i was using and that´s when i got hooked.... It was so damn beautiful with an amazing blue sheen. Since then my very favourite among all the animals have always been caudates.

 

[john]

Hi!

Came across this picture, didn't know I still had it..Probably from 35 years ago, I am holding a blue spotted..I am about 10 in the picture.
I actually got into salamanders long before that when I was 4 or 5 and my aunt brought a bunch of lick and stick books up to the cottage in Ontario from New Jersey, one of which was an Amphibian issue.
When I was six or seven my neighbors came back from their cottage with some Blue spotted salamanders and I have been hooked ever since then and have been keeping some form of caudata ever since.
It is the only hobby that hasn't wore off over the years..

 

[ravenous]

When I was about 10, I saw em in a petshop and knew I had to have one.

So I bought it and put it between 2 slices of bread... It was love at first bite!

(Message edited by Ravenous on April 13, 2007)

 

[jody]

when i was 8 i had the misfortune of my mom getting me and her into a car accident, she was fine i had to get my knee operated on. my mom felt sorry for me so she allowed me to start keeping pets since i was stuck in the house for 6 months. i pretty much was limited to fish , nothing that could not live in a fish tank was her rule =) well my grandfather pulled a fast one on her and went to the local petshop near our house. i'll never forget the day he brought me home 6 firebelly newts and a new tank with a t.shanjing for it. i loved the firebelly's but the shanjing looked so prestoric that i could not stop staring at him. it was love at first sight. i kept that newt for 8 years ...he joined me in many crazy life adventures. after he died i never saw another until i went to a reptile show in texas , the old flame started burning again. now i try to study a new animal every night ...=)and much to my wifes horror my office is being taken over by newts and salamanders...

 

[ken]

Good question. As a kid growing up in the Bronx, NYC, you really didn't get to see much in the way of wildlife. The folks, one summer decided to send the kids up to the Catskill mountain range to get us a break from the city. The counselors on one rainy day said now it's time for a salamander hunt. What the hell was that? Well, all the kids hit the woods with plastic cups for whatever, and away we went. All of a sudden the fern and moss covered woods were teeming with little vermillion red efts. They looked like electric lizards. I was a dino fan at the time, and these guys resembled mini dinos. Wow. Half were into the adult phase, while most were the blazing red. Also, we found pickerel frogs, which were very colorful in their own right. I bugged the counselors for weeks to get the little guys home, but they never would. Dessication was their fate, unfortunately, but I'll never forget seeing them hunting for springtails or whatever in the damp forest floor. My guess is that most of their areas are developed nowadays, but the memories remain.

 

[nic]

When I was about oh, I don't know nine or ten, my family used to take short weekend trips to a nearby lake that was about an hour and a half away. There a friend had a property with a cabin that we used to call Uncle Tom's Cabin. It was such a wonderful place. It had a creek nearby the cabin that eventually lead into the lake...Lake Malone as it was called...a man made lake as a matter of fact. It was such a wonderful place. The creek was miles long, and hiking up it you could see about four beautiful water falls. Of course it was teaming with salamander larva, mostly two lined salamanders. We had so much fun there and I used to catch them, bring them home and try to keep them. At the time though, there wasn't much in understanding how to feed them, so I didn't do that much as they wouldn't survive. It wasn't until I met caudata that my interest and ability reflourished.