Survey shows boost to newt population

Great crested newts are thriving in the Braydon Forest area of north Wiltshire, a survey by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust reveals.

The Trust has just completed a survey of 38 farm ponds in the area and found that 10 of them are populated by these distinctive amphibians, with their dark bodies, orange spotted bellies and in the case of the male, jagged crests that run along their back and tails.

Although an internationally important species protected by European law, numbers of these newts have declined as a result of changes to their habitat caused by shifts in land use and farming practices. Now the restoration of ponds under the Trust’s Landscapes for Wildlife Project is helping to bring them back.

“It seems we have a healthy population of great crested newts in the area, but we still need to restore more ponds to expand their numbers,” says Landscapes for Wildlife Project Officer Paul Darby.

The great crested newt spends most of its life on land before seeking out ponds between February and April in which to breed. After mid summer, the newts move out of ponds and forage in grassland for small invertebrates to eat, hiding under stones, old logs, dense scrub, long grass and even flower pots in gardens until the following spring.

Paul explains. “A couple of years ago we restored a pond near Minety, turning it from a damp overgrown dip into a proper water-holding pond once more.

“Males need such open water to perform a complicated courtship dance in which it waves its tail a lot. The females lay fertilised eggs individually on the leaves of submerged plants. Our survey shows that great crested newts are now occupying this pond, which is fantastic news.

“Of course restoring ponds helps all sorts of other wildlife too, and smooth newts, palmate newts, toads and frogs are all benefiting from the project’s work in the area, along with dragonflies and some birds.”

http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/index.php?section=news&id=2962