Great crested newt - Triturus cristatus - Family: Salamandridae

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Great crested newt - Triturus cristatus
© Peter Wakely/English Nature

The great crested newt is the largest of the three native newt species and can grow to about 16cm. In the breeding season, the male has a large conspicuous crest. This is tall and jagged on the back with a gap at the base of the tail and more smooth-edged on and over the tail. The male has a characteristic white flash on the centre of the tail. Apart from its size, it can be distinguished from the more common smooth newt by the gap in the crest at the base of the tail. The skin is very dark above, with mottled black markings and the belly is orange with black spots.

These newts can be seen during the daytime but are often more active at night. It's worth going out to the pond with a torch on a warm spring evening: you may be amazed at what goes on there!

Newts lay their eggs singly rather than in clumps like frogs or in strings like toads. The eggs - as many as 300 for each female - are attached to submerged vegetation which is then wrapped around them for protection. The tadpoles often swim freely in open water, which makes them vulnerable to fish. They can grow to eight centimetres in length - as long as an adult smooth newt. Newts spend much of their time out of the water and like other amphibians, they need damp places for shelter and hibernation. At this time, the skin is rough and granular. They will creep into log piles, under stones and into rockeries and compost heaps, individuals sometimes gathering together in a tight mass, perhaps to reduce the loss of moisture. When on land, newts may be confused with lizards, but they have four fingers, not five, lack any claws or scales, and are much slower moving.

Newts are strictly carnivorous. Great crested newts can be long-lived once they get past the risky larval stage. Many reach six years and they have been known to reach the age of 15. Great crested newts are quite widely distributed throughout England but may be more common in the eastern counties. This species is strictly protected by law and is less likely to colonise a garden pond than the smooth newt. It can, nonetheless occur, especially in larger ponds without fish.

Food

Strictly carnivorous: anything that moves that can be captured. Adults eat frog and toad tadpoles, insects, worms, slugs and even the occasional smooth newt! Tadpoles eat aquatic animals such as water fleas, small worms and insect larvae.

Prey

Common frog, Common toad, Corixa punctata, Culiseta annulata, Dragonflies and damselflies, Fast woodlouse, Flat-backed millipede, Great pond snail, Non-biting midge, Pink woodlouse, Porcellio scaber, Slugs and snails, Smooth newt, Tadpoles, Water invertebrates, Worms

Predators

Grey heron, Jackdaw