Newts, didn't know we had them in Ireland!

A while back we were extending a pond we had landscaped years ago and in the process found these beauties!
I didn't think we had newts in Ireland until we found about 20 on this job. Being only vaguely aware of they're protected status (??), we built a temporary pond and re introduced them to the finished pond afterwards (along with dozens of frogs!)I was back recently to the same garden and they seem to be doing well although hard to spot!

I have no idea how common they are or what their true protected status is but it's good to know such an interesting species appears to be doing well in suburban Dublin! Does anyone know anything about them? Are they rare or everywhere and thriving??

Cheers, Rob

Hi Rob,

excellent topic glad to see the newts were put safely in their new home and are doing well. Personally I have not seen a newt in the wild as such for over 30 years now they are very rare now in most parts of the country primarily down to habitat loss. They are definitely protected in the same way as our native frogs. There is legislation in place which prohibits removing them or their spawn from their natural habitat.
You know yourself though, how often is such legislation actually enforced. Pretty much left to individuals like yourself who have enough common sense to look after them and rehome them as required in this case, or leave well alone if in a natural habitat.
Not sure that anyone in the country can say for definite how rare they are now, but both frog and newt populations have declined dramatically over the last 20 years in this country. They are listed as a having a widespread distribution across the country, not sure if this is really the case anymore. Would be interested to hear from others around the country on this.

Cheers,

Bill

Great stuff.....you should have given me a call as I only live down the road from you.

We are presently doing a nationwide survey on the sightings are all Irish amphibians:

www.thehsi.org/heritage-council-grant-aw...hytrid-fungus-study/

and we have a database set-up to log these sightings.....

www.thehsi.org/sightings/

so please fill in the data on the sightings web-page and post through some pictures.

The Newt is not as rare as the Natterjack toad (another of our 3 amphibians here). The Newt will migrate from place to place, whereas the natterjack will not migrate in search of new habitats....and its habitats are being slowly destroyed.


Ian

(I'll also sign this as Chairpserson, The Herpetological Society of Ireland).

very interesting thread as newts have been seen here in ballymore eustace a bit recently and have created quite a stir so would be interesting to find out more....

ian i will take a look at the links you have put up in the morning and see if i can contribute because our garden is full of frogs and toads this time of year and it would be nice to have an idea about which is which. anyways i'll chat more tomorrow when i'm not so tired

igmillichip wrote:

Great stuff.....you should have given me a call as I only live down the road from you.

We are presently doing a nationwide survey on the sightings are all Irish amphibians:

www.thehsi.org/heritage-council-grant-aw...hytrid-fungus-study/

and we have a database set-up to log these sightings.....

www.thehsi.org/sightings/

so please fill in the data on the sightings web-page and post through some pictures.

The Newt is not as rare as the Natterjack toad (another of our 3 amphibians here). The Newt will migrate from place to place, whereas the natterjack will not migrate in search of new habitats....and its habitats are being slowly destroyed.


Ian

(I'll also sign this as Chairpserson, The Herpetological Society of Ireland).

davey_c wrote:

very interesting thread as newts have been seen here in ballymore eustace a bit recently and have created quite a stir so would be interesting to find out more....

ian i will take a look at the links you have put up in the morning and see if i can contribute because our garden is full of frogs and toads this time of year and it would be nice to have an idea about which is which. anyways i'll chat more tomorrow when i'm not so tired

igmillichip wrote:

Great stuff.....you should have given me a call as I only live down the road from you.

We are presently doing a nationwide survey on the sightings are all Irish amphibians:

www.thehsi.org/heritage-council-grant-aw...hytrid-fungus-study/

and we have a database set-up to log these sightings.....

www.thehsi.org/sightings/

so please fill in the data on the sightings web-page and post through some pictures.

The Newt is not as rare as the Natterjack toad (another of our 3 amphibians here). The Newt will migrate from place to place, whereas the natterjack will not migrate in search of new habitats....and its habitats are being slowly destroyed.


Ian

(I'll also sign this as Chairpserson, The Herpetological Society of Ireland).

The HSI presently has teams of fully licensed swabbers taking swap samples from amphibians from all over Ireland in the first ever survey of Chytrid Fungus in Ireland.

So, if anyone has any tip-offs as to natterjack toads and newts can be seen now then please let me know.

I am also getting an itchy finger wanting to get out to take some photos for publication or archive of newts (but I don't have time to travel much further than south-side dublin at the present time).

ian

Hi Ian, sorry it's taken a bit to reply- we had our first chance of a night out since our second baby arrived 4 months ago so we grabbed it!

I checked out the H.S.I. links you posted but I had a problem submitting the survey form and I don't think it registered. I've stored the 6 digit grid reference of the garden where we found the newts and will try again.

I went through all of my work photo files to see if I had any more photos but only came up with one of the frogs from the same pond ( a lot harder to persuade to stay in the temperary pond than the newts, requiring daily rescues till the new pond was built!)

I'll pm you my contact details, feel free to contact me at any stage as would be happy to help out.

Cheers, Rob

@Rob, maybe when the newts reappear we could get a photo-shoot of them.

There is, for some odd reason, a slightly tricky bit to the map-reference. The map reference is generated by someone else, and if my memory serves me well, you may have to remove any spaces between numbers.

I can double check with our webmaster to see if anything has changed since I tested it.

But, the pictures you show will be good.....and emphasise that that is in your own pond in the garden (so as not to indicate that the newts are not being picked-up in the wilds).

I receive a notification e-mail if the upload on the sightings is successful, so can feed back if we receive it well and good.

ian

@Rob, on the OS map grid references.

I placed a sighting (frogs) on the map at Druids Valley (in the valley to the left of the north-bound side of the N11 but below Cherrywood/Tulleyvale.

The Map Reference on the top line read something like "O 238 238".

The code I entered for that was then 238238 (remove the O character and all spaces to get a 6 digit number).

If you put your sighting up, then that would be the second sighting loaded of a Smooth Newt (Lissotriton vulgaris)

Just noticed one odd thing, no one has made a sighting of a Natterjack toad yet (it has to be a real sighting...no cheats).

ian

Hi Ian,

I managed to upload the sighting with the amended grid reference and added a note with details of the pond. I've added the page to my Favorites and will log any other sightings etc.

Hope it helps with the studies, will check your site to keep updated.

Cheers, Rob.

woodstock500 wrote:

Hi Ian,

I managed to upload the sighting with the amended grid reference and added a note with details of the pond. I've added the page to my Favorites and will log any other sightings etc.

Hope it helps with the studies, will check your site to keep updated.

Cheers, Rob.

Cool.
I'm not sure when that data will be loaded onto the web, but I do know we have received the upload.

Great stuff.

ian

This has been put as top recent story of the H.S.I. website......
www.thehsi.org/629/

ian

wow
the landscape/pond in the third image is stunning

Des

This sighting was actually discussed at the HSI AGM last week. Very important sighting.

ian

Thought you might be interested in this one - photographed during a Bat Walk on the Native woodland Trust reserve near Blessington - its a Newt climbing about 1.5 metres up the trunk of a large old Oak tree.

A pond on the site holds 20-30 newts spotted by torch the same night.

(Ian - we've also got Lizards on two of our other reserves - I'll enter them on your HSI list!)

Jim wrote:

Thought you might be interested in this one - photographed during a Bat Walk on the Native woodland Trust reserve near Blessington - its a Newt climbing about 1.5 metres up the trunk of a large old Oak tree.

A pond on the site holds 20-30 newts spotted by torch the same night.

(Ian - we've also got Lizards on two of our other reserves - I'll enter them on your HSI list!)

Cool. Give as much detail as you can.

ian