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RAUK - Archived Forum - lizard or newt?

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lizard or newt?:

Author	Message
kateatcrowlas Member Joined: 12 Oct 2006 No. of posts: 40 View other posts by kateatcrowlas	Posted: 12 Oct 2006 I have recently started seeing these animals in my garden. I know I had palmate newts (not sure if that was all I had) in my pond in April-June. Are these common lizards or young newts?

mikebrown Senior Member Joined: 30 Jun 2005 No. of posts: 95 View other posts by mikebrown	Posted: 12 Oct 2006 definitely newt ! Mike Brown Mike Brown Merseyside ARG

kateatcrowlas Member Joined: 12 Oct 2006 No. of posts: 40 View other posts by kateatcrowlas	Posted: 12 Oct 2006 Thanks for that Mike, do you know what type, and how do I recognise the differences? The websites and books I have looked at have been very unclear. I am very new at this but I have been taking lots of photos!

Dan Kane Senior Member Joined: 30 Dec 2005 No. of posts: 201 View other posts by Dan Kane	Posted: 15 Oct 2006 I am not sure, but to me this looks like a palmate rather than a smooth newt. The main difference between palmate and smooth newts is the neck underside - in smooth newts there is almost always many spots, but rarley any spots on the underside of the palmate's neck. Hope this helps Dan Dan www.randacumbria.moonfruit.com

kateatcrowlas Member Joined: 12 Oct 2006 No. of posts: 40 View other posts by kateatcrowlas	Posted: 15 Oct 2006 Thanks Dan, I'm trying to get any info I can and the spot thing is something I haven't found out yet! I have another question for everyone! I've been hunting high and low for a website with a large number of pictures of frogs, newts, lizards etc on it as I find it difficult to I.D. from just one photo, but I am having no luck. The best thing about this site was that I could send in a photo and people have been helpful but I would like somewhere I can look at a lot of pictures. Does anyone know of any good websites with lots of photographs of UK wildlife? Or any good books on UK, especially Cornish, wildlife? Also, I have been taking a lot of photos (of variable quality, mostly not very good!), would they be of any use to anyone?

Vicar Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 No. of posts: 1181 View other posts by Vicar	Posted: 16 Oct 2006 Kate, I definitely agree with the idea of providing many pictures, against which you can compare your own sighting. Herps do vary an awful lot in markings. There are some good Euro sites, but I don't know of a particularly decent UK site as yet. The SARG website will do this (WWW link below), but its going to take a long time to cover all species in the depth that the adder is shown currently (lots of pics!) Vicar39006.3788425926 Steve Langham - Chairman Surrey Amphibian & Reptile Group (SARG).

Donny Senior Member Joined: 11 May 2004 No. of posts: 53 View other posts by Donny	Posted: 16 Oct 2006 You can always try a google image search by common or latin name - though it's not at all reliable. LivingUnderworld.org has lots of amphibian pics (from all over the world, not just UK): http://www.livingunderworld.org/gallery/photos/caudata/salam andridae/triturus/vulgaris/ http://www.livingunderworld.org/gallery/photos/caudata/salam andridae/triturus/helveticus/ Donny Donny39006.9010763889

kateatcrowlas Member Joined: 12 Oct 2006 No. of posts: 40 View other posts by kateatcrowlas	Posted: 30 Oct 2006 I have noticed that in the last few nights the newts I have been seeing are smaller and less 'full' in the belly than the ones I was seeing earlier in the month. Also, there seem to be quite a few which are dark green/grey, quite a different colour to the ones I was seeing a lot of earlier on in the month. The dark green/grey ones are much more slender but just as long as the golden/brown ones, when you look at the two together the difference is quite striking. Could these be the same animals at different ages, or different sexes of the same animal? I have just got brave enough to touch them, and the brown/golden ones are very silky to the touch whereas the green/grey ones feel a bit scaly. I haven't picked one up yet! Could someone tell me if it is OK to pick them up, what is the best way to do it and how long I can look at them/hold them for without upsetting them too much. I've attached one of my favourite pictures I have taken so far!

kateatcrowlas Member Joined: 12 Oct 2006 No. of posts: 40 View other posts by kateatcrowlas	Posted: 30 Oct 2006

Caleb Forum Coordinator Joined: 17 Feb 2003 No. of posts: 448 View other posts by Caleb	Posted: 31 Oct 2006 Do you live in Cornwall? If you do, these are most likely palmate newts- there are very few smooth newts in that part of the country. Sounds like your two types of newt are males and females- male palmate newts are much more grey-green than the females, which are usually reddish- or yellowish- brown. Males are usually much slimmer.

- lizard or newt?

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