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Project Noah Nature School
Taricha torosa
The California newts at the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens are breeding! This is the fist time I have ever seen a newt. They were all underwater. Photo 5 shows developing newts in the egg sac.
UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens Japanese Pool, Berkley, CA.
Breathes through lungs. Terrestrial and diurnal, often seen crawling over land in the daytime, becoming aquatic when breeding. (In some permanent bodies of water, adults retain their aquatic breeding phase characteristics and live in the water year-round.) Sometimes seen moving in large numbers to aquatic breeding sites during or after rains during breeding season. Terrestrial newts summer in moist habitats under woody debris, or in rock crevices and animal burrows, but can sometimes be seen wandering overland in moist habitat or conditions any time of the year. Poisonous skin secretions containing tetrodotoxin repel most predators. This potent neurotoxin is widespread throughout the skin, muscles, and blood, and can cause death in many animals, including humans, if eaten in sufficient quantity. (One study estimated that 1,200 - 2,500 mice could be killed from the skin of one California Newt.) This poison can also be ingested through a mucous membrane or a cut in the skin, so care should always be taken when handling newts. In most locations the Common Gartersnake, Thamnophis sirtalis, is has a high resistance to this poison, and is known to prey on Coast Range Newts. When threatened, a newt will assume a swaybacked defensive pose, closing its eyes, extending its limbs to the sides, and holding its tail straight out. This "unken reflex" exposes its bright orange ventral surface coloring which is a warning to potential predators. When feeding on the ground, adults feed by projecting a sticky tongue to capture prey. Aquatic adults open their mouth and suck the prey in. Larvae are not poisonous and are preyed on by adult newts and other predators. Chemical cues from adult newts trigger larvae to seek cover. Longevity is not known, but it has been estimated that California Newts can live for more than 20 years. http://www.californiaherps.com/salamande...
Spotted on Mar 23, 2012
Submitted on Mar 24, 2012
8 Comments
Thank you tiwa329!
Holy cow!prrritty
@retep.awesome it was on Mar 23, 2012.
what time of the year was this?
Thank you DonnaPomeroy! It was really amazing. You could see the larvae moving in the egg sacs.
Thank you DomyungKim!
Great spotting. What an exciting find. It's especially interesting to see the eggs.
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