The smooth newt is the only newt species to be found in Ireland and is quite common. It is usually found in garden ponds between February and June. The smooth newt is brown, the male having a wavy crest during the breeding season.

SPECIES DESCRIPTION: The smooth newt can grow up to 10cm long. It has smooth soft skin. The back is brown while the belly is paler with dark spots. Females are duller than males. During the breeding season the male becomes more spotted, his belly turns bright orange and he grows a continuous wavy crest along his back. Newts have only four toes on their front feet not five. Smooth newts are most often found in ponds during the breeding season between February and June. Spawn is laid as individual eggs each of which is carefully wrapped in a leaf of pond weed by the female newt. Like frogs they have a tadpole stage (called an eft), but unlike frogs, the tadpoles of newts develop their front legs before their back legs. Newt efts breathe through external feathery gills which sprout from behind their heads. In early summer, after breeding, adult newts return to live on land in damp places such as underneath logs and stones. Young newts emerge from the water to live on land at the end of the summer. Newts usually hibernate on land during winter.

KEY IDENTIFICATION FEATURES:

• Moist skin without obvious scales
  
• Long tail

© Jon Russ 2001. Text refereed by Angela Ross & Lynne Rendle.

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