Amphibians
Great Crested Newt
Triturus cristatus · also called great crested newt, northern crested newt, warty newt
The great crested newt is a small dragon. In the breeding season the male grows a tall, jagged crest down his back and a silver-flashed tail, and defends a patch of pondweed with a swaying underwater dance. For the rest of the year it is a dark, warty, orange-bellied amphibian hunting slugs on wet nights — and one of the most legally significant animals in Britain.
Overview
Great crested newts live across northern and central Europe, breeding in ponds — ideally medium-sized, fish-free, and sunlit — and spending most of their lives in the rough grassland, scrub, and woodland around them. They are nocturnal on land, sheltering by day under cover and in burrows, and they hibernate through winter. Britain holds an internationally important part of the population.
The largest British newt
At 13–16 centimetres, it is roughly twice the size of the smooth newt. The skin is very dark and warty, the belly a bright orange with black blotches — a pattern unique to each individual, which researchers photograph to tell newts apart. In spring the male transforms: a tall, ragged crest along the back (broken at the tail base), a separate wavy tail fin, and a white-blue streak on each side of the tail.
Chemistry and warning
The warty skin secretes a distasteful, mildly toxic substance, and a threatened newt will arch its body to show the warning-coloured belly. This is enough to deter many predators, though grass snakes, herons, and fish larvae-eaters still take a toll.
The year
- Spring: adults migrate to the breeding pond; males display; females wrap 200+ eggs individually in leaves.
- Summer: larvae grow, gain legs and lungs.
- Late summer: young leave the water as efts; adults return to land.
- Winter: hibernation.
Newts do not breed until two or three years old.
Protection
The great crested newt has declined across Europe with the loss of ponds and terrestrial habitat, and it now has the highest level of legal protection in the UK and under the EU Habitats Directive. It is an offence to kill, injure, disturb, or damage the habitat of one, so development sites must be surveyed, and projects may require licences, mitigation ponds, fencing, and translocation — making this small amphibian a routine and sometimes costly consideration in construction.
Great Crested Newt: common questions
Why is the great crested newt so heavily protected?
It has declined sharply across its European range as farm and village ponds have been filled in, polluted, or stocked with fish that eat the larvae, and as the rough grassland and woodland the adults need has been built on or intensively farmed. Britain became a stronghold for a species in trouble elsewhere, so the newt was given the highest level of legal protection under both UK law and the EU Habitats Directive. In practice this means a development site with great crested newts on or near it must be surveyed, and works may need licences, mitigation ponds, exclusion fencing, and newt translocation, which can add significant time and cost to construction projects.
How do you tell a great crested newt from other newts?
Size and colour are the quick guide. It is much larger and bulkier than the smooth or palmate newt, with very dark, almost black, warty ("crested" or "warty" newt) skin and a vivid orange belly marked with irregular black blotches. In spring, a breeding male is unmistakable — a tall, ragged crest runs along his back, broken above the base of the tail, with a separate wavy-edged tail fin and a bright bluish-white streak along each side of the tail. Females and non-breeding animals lack the crest but keep the size, dark warty skin, and orange belly.
Is the great crested newt dangerous to touch?
Not to humans in normal handling, but its skin glands do produce a distasteful, mildly toxic secretion as a defence against predators, and it can arch its back and tail to flash the warning-coloured belly (the "unken reflex"). You should always wet your hands before handling any newt, avoid touching your eyes or mouth, and wash afterwards. In Britain you also legally cannot handle great crested newts without a licence, so in practice the question is academic for most people.
What is the newt's yearly cycle?
Great crested newts spend most of the year on land — foraging on damp nights and sheltering by day under logs, stones, and in small mammal burrows within a few hundred metres of a pond — and hibernating over winter. In late winter and spring the adults migrate to the breeding pond, where males display their crests to females in an underwater courtship dance. The female then wraps each of her 200-plus eggs individually in a folded pond-plant leaf. The larvae grow through the summer, develop legs and lungs, and leave the water as small "efts" in late summer, not returning to breed for two to three years.