The Triturus cristatus, better known as Great-crested Newt, is the UK’s biggest newt growing up to 17cm long and is country’s most protected amphibian covered under schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, the Habitat Regulations Act of 1994 and is a European Protected Species. Its population has declined over recent years as a result of the destruction and fragmentation of its natural habitat and the Romney Marshes are now one its last strong holds. It is illegal to catch, possess or handle great crested newts without a license and it is also illegal to cause them harm or death, or to disturb their habitat in any way.

Physical characteristics and behavior

The Great-crested newt is often taken to be almost black in colour but actually have dark grey-brown backs and flanks with dark spots. Their under-sides are yellow or orange-coloured and are covered in large black blotches. Males of the species can be identified by a jagged-crest along their backs and a Silver-grey strip along the tail. In size they can grow up to 17cm long over their lifespan of up to 27 years.

Newts start life as eggs on submerged plants, hatching at about 3 weeks. Until four months they then live under water as predators eating small insects. At around four months they metamorphose into air-breathers where they live on ground in dense undergrowth usually straying no more than a few hundred meters from their breading pond. They typically live under rocks and logs during the day, emerging at night to eat small insects such as woodlice, slugs, worms and snails. As with other amphibians they hibernate during the winter under logs or stones or at the bottom of ponds.

Preservation and population on the Romney Marshes

The Romney Marsh Countryside Project, with funding from English Nature, surveyed approximately just under 400 sites across the Romney Marsh Natural Area for great-crested newts between 1998 and 2000. Between 1 and 358 individual newts were found at 101 of the sites surveyed.

In the last 16 years, the Romney Marsh Countryside project has created 26 new ponds and restored a further 8 under funding from English Nature and Kent County Council and many are known to have been colonized by the newts. Sadly over the last 16 years 131 ponds on the Romney Marsh are known to have been lost to changing agricultural practices¹.

Across the UK, colony loss is estimated at 2 per cent over five years with only 3,000 populated ponds identified (although it is estimated that there are  approximately 18,000)². As such, the Romney Marshes are internationally important and key site for the preservation of Triturus cristatus.

References

1: Romney Marsh Countryside Project - Great Crested Newt : http://www.rmcp.co.uk/GreatCrestedNewt.html

2: UK Government's Species Action Plan for Great-crested Newt: http://www.ukbap.org.uk/UKPlans.aspx?ID=619

Picture: Wikipedia page on Great-crested newt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_crested_newt

Last update: 01-06-2008 11:27