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Marbled Newt

Triturus marmoratus

Description:

Marbled newts have dark brown or black bodies with irregular patterns of green. They have black bellies with off-white specks. Adult females have an orange stripe running down the back from the head to the tip of the tail. Juveniles also have this stripe, but it fades on males at about 9 months. Breeding males have a large wavy crest that runs from its neck down to the tip of its tail, but is a little bit shorter were the tail meets the body. The crest is striped yellowish-white with black. Adult Marbled Newts are from 5 inches (13 cm) to 6.5 inches (17 cm) long

Habitat:

Marbled newts live throughout most of France, and northern Spain west to the top third of Portugal. They have a slight overlap with the Pygmy Marbled Newt (T. pygmaeus), which take over southern Spain. Marbled Newts are absent from a lot of the Pyrenees because of dry and unstable conditions. In northern France the populations are more scattered due to the presence of the Great Crested Newt (t. cristatus), which the Marbled Newt hybridizes with to some extent. The higher elevation Mediterranean climates are the preferred habitat of Marbled Newts, and in the overlap, T. pygmaeus takes the lower elevations.

Notes:

"Orientation toward breeding ponds plays an important role in the seasonal movements of amphibians. In this study, adult marbled newts were tested in a circular arena to determine sensory cues used to locate breeding ponds. Animals were collected from a temporary pond situated in northern Spain, taken to the experimental site 340 m distant, and tested for orientation under a variety of conditions (i.e., orientation under a clear night sky, orientation under an overcast night sky, and orientation under a clear night sky in the presence of an altered geomagnetic field). These investigations have demonstrated that the marbled newt is able to orient using celestial cues. Animals chose a compass course in the direction of their breeding pond only when celestial cues were available. Conversely, the ambient geomagnetic field does not seem to be relevant to orientation of marbled newts since they were unable to orient themselves using the ambient geomagnetic field in the absence of celestial cues."(Journal of Ethology September 2002, Volume 20, Issue 2, pp 137-141 Celestial orientation in the marbled newt (Triturus marmoratus) Javier F. Diego-Rasilla, Rosa M. Luengo) Spotted in river Homem félinhos beach,first time we saw one :)

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94 Comments (1–25)

Thanks guys for your words

Single D
Single D 3 years ago

What beautiful camouflage colourings.

syzygy
syzygy 3 years ago

Absolutely! - An ancient waterflow (now channeled) 'Pap-ere' ~Priest creek* is next to E.
(*The area was a church property in historical times.)

Thanks syzygy,this species is beautiful and not easy to spot,only in special clear nights in winter,they show up.The best places to spot salamanders and newts are the places near water,river's,pond's and sources,they return to the same places where they born,in order to breed,in my area i found 3 different species.The one you find was near water?

syzygy
syzygy 3 years ago

Handsome amphibian, nice shots, great spotting!

Here is a related one - my only Newt spotting so far shared here on board :
https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/19...

Thanks RiekoS for your nice comment

RiekoS
RiekoS 10 years ago

Very nice.

Pedro Henrique Moura
Pedro Henrique Moura 10 years ago

por nada amigo achei muito incrivel

Obrigado Pedro,este Tritão é incrivel,tem um verde musgo que se mescla com o fundo,mesmo fixe

Pedro Henrique Moura
Pedro Henrique Moura 10 years ago

muito bonito e camuflado

Thanks HazelMarley,for your kind words

HazelMarley
HazelMarley 10 years ago

You can see that in all of the pictures it really blends in with the moss. Nice job! :)

Thanks Mona for your nice comment

Mona Pirih
Mona Pirih 10 years ago

It's awesome...

Thanks Hemma

Hema  Shah
Hema Shah 11 years ago

Beautiful!!

Thanks very much Claudia,to us it was the first time to :-)

ClaudiaCarneiro
ClaudiaCarneiro 11 years ago

Beautiful photos Antonio! I´ve never seen this specie before, it's really nice, and the colours.. Congrats!! =)

:-) we where making the last minutes in the place,i was just checking that wall and like you said sudently i saw those black eyes shining with the flash lamp ligth,but at first the body was dificult to see,the colour is almost the same as the moss, if you look well you can see a little mushroom in the rigth side near her foot :-)

Noah Citizen
Noah Citizen 11 years ago

I could imagine your surprise, instead of finding mushrooms, having one pair of black eyes starring at you!

Thanks Noah Citizen,i only saw it when i was a less than 50cm from her,i was looking for tiny mushrooms on the granit wall :-)

Noah Citizen
Noah Citizen 11 years ago

This one is really well hiding. Anyone could walk aside and not spotting it. Wonderful job!

Thanks Luis

LuisStevens
LuisStevens 11 years ago

Congrats António for your STOD.

Braga, Braga, Portugal

Spotted on Nov 18, 2012
Submitted on Nov 18, 2012

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