Alpine newt numbers from the Bunderbos have not been monitored adequately, but in contrast to what Miguel wrote, I have been told a reduction in numbers may be at hand. However, like Miguel said & as far as I know, there are no cases of mortality in field conditions in any other species than Salamandra salamandra. Maybe other factors make fire salamanders more susceptible under field conditions, who knows.
miguel santos wrote:To be fair this could have happened on any western country were terrariums are popular.
The thing is that the popularity of keeping salamanders (for as far as I can tell) is not equally vivid across countries.
Furthermore, I think you need to factor in the amount of attention this particular population has received. I dare to assume that a lot of Dutch people wanted to see this species within the borders of their own country (how silly it may seem...). This might result in a more than average exposure level. Naturally, there are salamander keepers among these people. At least one of them didn't clean his stuff properly. For the sake of that person, it's a good thing we'll never no who. For the sake of the fire salamander, this person should have never started keeping salamanders and/or seeking them out in the wild. I'm not going to brand herp keepers as evil (again
), but my personal dislikes for animals in terraria have been reinforced by this issue.