NATURE TABLE: The Smooth Newt

There is only one species of newt found in Ireland, the smooth or common newt, although there is a record of an Alpine newt found in Co Galway. It was almost certainly an escaped pet.

Newts spend about two-thirds of the year on land and during this time they are much duller in colour and are occasionally confused with common lizards. Lizards are reptile and newts are amphibians so the two are totally unrelated.

Newts are sometimes called salamanders in parts of rural Ireland. True salamanders, like the European fire salamander, are much larger and more brightly coloured amphibians that are found in continental Europe but not in Britain or Ireland.

Smooth newts seldom exceed 10cm in length, fire salamanders can be three times that length.

This is the end of the breeding season for newts and soon the adults will be leaving the water to forage on land and eventually hibernate there.

Their tadpoles will remain behind in the water, most of them maturing and crawling out of water in the autumn.

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