December Newts and Salamanders

[Sandra Panienka]

It is way too warm for December but good for herping. A friend and I decided to go on a search for salamanders and alpine newts last friday night. Our spot never disappoints. When we arrived it just had stopped to rain and the temperature was around 8°C. We found about 30 fire salamanders (adults, subadults, juveniles and one larva) and about 70 alpine newts (adults, subadults and juveniles). We also found a common toad, but it didn't seem to be in a very good shape.























Other stuff:







Thanks for watching! :O)

[Mario Schweiger]

Sandra,
very nice pics!
A vegetarian Ichthyosaura (4th pic from top)?

Mario

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

I love how those newts are so nicely spotted...

[Gabriel Martínez]

I. alpestris is so nice... somedays I prefer males and other days females, but both of them are the most cute herps of Europe. Nice photos Sandra!

BTW: Like Mario, I´m also surprised with the vegetarian newt!

[Bobby Bok]

That Salamandra looks huge in comparison to the Alpine Newt Great pictures!

[Peter Oefinger]

Well, in winter it has some advantages to photograph amphibs instead of reptiles! Cool pictures...

[Sandra Panienka]

Thanks for the kind replies.
I assume the vegetarian lady newt was on the hunt. I often find them eating snails, worms or bugs. Sometimes they also just sit in front of snails and bugs and seem to wait until they move. Especially bugs and snails tend to sit on blades of grass.

Here are some examples from earlier this year and last November:

January 15th, 2011 - Bug staring contest


November 2010 - Successful snail hunting


November 2010 - Litte newt + big worm

[Sebastian Holzki]

Sandra, great pics of the newts in situ.

[Bobby Bok]

Keep them coming!

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Jummie!