Smooth Newt: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Wild Mix · day 7 of 7

Five facts

1. Though it breeds in ponds, the smooth newt spends most of the year on land. It comes out at night and winters in little groups under logs.
2. In the breeding season the male dresses up: a crest grows along his back and tail, and the tail's lower edge turns red with a silver-blue flash.
3. A female lays 100 to 500 eggs, and she usually tucks them away by folding them inside the leaves of water plants.
4. Newly hatched larvae have two tiny stalks on the sides of the head to cling to plants. These vanish within a few days.
5. It is found from Ireland to Siberia. In Ireland, it is the only kind of newt that lives there.

The quiz

1. Where does the smooth newt spend most of the year?

• On land (correct)
• Deep in lakes
• In the sea
• High in trees

Outside the breeding season it lives on land and is active at night.

2. What grows on the male's back and tail in the breeding season?

• Long spines
• Fluffy hair
• A skin crest (correct)
• A hard shell

Males grow a continuous crest of skin along the back and tail.

3. Where does the female usually put her eggs?

• In a bird's nest
• Folded inside water-plant leaves (correct)
• On dry sand
• Under the ice

She wraps her eggs in the leaves of aquatic plants.

4. What do the two little stalks on a newborn larva's head help it do?

• Smell food
• Hear predators
• Breathe air
• Hold on to plants (correct)

These balancers let the larva attach to plants, then disappear in a few days.

5. The smooth newt lives from Ireland in the west to where in the east?

• Iceland
• Siberia (correct)
• Portugal
• Morocco

Its range stretches from Ireland and Great Britain to Siberia.

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