On the hunt for newts

Carolyn discovers what it takes to survey great crested newts...

As days get warmer, it's a chance to get out and survey wildlife. All the trainees got chance to do this in spring when we helped to search for great crested newts.

On a dry evening we all set off with full bellies from enjoying a pub meal to join Worcestershire Wildlife Consultancy at Lower Smite Farm in checking three of the ponds for great crested newts. Great crested newts are a protected species within the UK and you must be licensed or with a license holder (as we were) to be able to survey them, which is an activity that can disturb them and their habitats.

As we waited for the sun to set, a full briefing was given about UK amphibians and what was involved in the task. Within the UK there are three species of newt; great crested, palmate and smooth (also known as common). The ponds at Lower Smite Farm provide habitats for two of these species, great crested and smooth newts. Palmate newts are less common and tend to occur in more acidic environments.

The briefing provided a great opportunity for us to ask questions and learn more about each of the species, which I hadn’t read a lot about but would like to learn more about. We learnt about great crested newt habitat suitability index; a survey that isn't a substitute for newt surveys but is a good way of measuring habitat suitability, providing us with information on what improvements are needed to make a pond more suitable for great crested newts to take up residence.

As the sun began to set it was time to head off on our search. With our torches at the ready, we set off with bottle traps and nets. Great crested newts spend most of the day sheltered on land in burrows or under logs from predation by herons and other birds. They're most active in the evening when they come to open water to find a mate or to hunt for food such as other newts, tadpoles, young froglets, worms, insect larvae and water snails. Breeding takes place from around March to June; an elaborate courtship routine sees males displaying before female newts and ends with females laying around 200 eggs that are individually wrapped inside leaves of pond plants.

Great crested newts have a dark grey-brown back and flanks that are covered in darker spots, making them appear black. Their undersides are a yellow-orange colour with large dark spots. They reach lengths of 17cm, making them the largest species of newt within Great Britain.

Upside down plastic bottle with a cane through it in a pond by Carolyn Franklin — Bottle trap in a pond by Carolyn Franklin

At the first pond, our first task was to use a torch to see if we could spot them with minimal disturbance. If this was unsuccessful then the next tool was to use a net to scoop across the bottom of the pond floor to see if we could capture them. Once these two tasks were completed a bottle trap was set up using a bamboo stick and a bottle with the top cut off and placed the other way. This was placed at an angle in the pond with one end of the bottle in the pond and the other being out in the open so that the newts are able to come up for air and not drown. This was done for each pond. At the end of the evening we found that the first two ponds had no newts. As the saying goes, though, we were third time lucky as we found many great crested newts in the third and final pond.

With bottle traps set up in all three ponds, we left them overnight and returned early the next morning so that they wouldn’t get overheated within the traps. Each trap was checked and poured out into a white tray, but all three traps were empty. Even though the trapping itself was unsuccessful, we still saw them in the third pond that evening and that alone made the experience really worthwhile.

If you decide to go looking for great crested newts, please make sure to be respectful of them and only handle them (or shine a torch at them) with a license holder. It's best to just simply admire their beauty from a distance.