Amphibians
Smooth Newt
Lissotriton vulgaris · also called common newt
The smooth newt is the amphibian most people in Britain have actually held — the little olive creature that turns up in a garden pond in spring, or under a flowerpot the rest of the year. For a few months the drab male transforms into one of the more ornate animals in the pond.
Overview
Lissotriton vulgaris is common across Britain, Ireland, and most of Europe, in and around ponds, ditches, and damp gardens. It is small, 8–11 cm, olive-brown, and spends most of the year on land, returning to water only to breed.
The breeding male
From late winter the male grows a wavy crest from head to tail, an orange black-spotted belly, and a blue tail flash. The female stays plain.
Courtship and eggs
The male never grips the female; he displays in front of her and fans his tail to waft a scent her way, then leaves a sperm packet on the pond floor for her to pick up. She then wraps each egg individually in a folded leaf of a water plant.
Land years
The juvenile efts leave the pond in late summer and live on land for two or three years before returning to breed.
Status
Least Concern and stable, helped by its willingness to use garden ponds. In the UK it is illegal to sell them, but the species is not rare — unlike the strictly protected great crested newt.
Smooth Newt: common questions
Is a smooth newt a lizard?
No, and it is a common mix-up. A newt is an amphibian, a kind of salamander, with moist scaleless skin, no claws, and a life cycle that starts in water. A lizard is a reptile, with dry scaly skin, clawed toes, and eggs or young produced on land. A smooth newt out of water on a warm evening can look lizard-like at a glance, but if it is soft-skinned, clawless, and heading for a pond, it is a newt. The old country name for newts, "asker" or "ask," and the Shakespearean "eye of newt" both refer to this animal or its relatives.
How do you tell a smooth newt from a great crested newt?
Size and skin are the quickest guides. A smooth newt is small, up to about 10 or 11 cm, with fairly smooth skin and a plain, unspotted or lightly spotted throat. A great crested newt is much larger, up to 16 cm, noticeably warty and dark, almost black, with a rough granular skin and a throat that is black flecked with white. In the breeding season the male great crested newt has a jagged, broken crest with a distinct gap over the hips and a silvery streak on the tail, while the male smooth newt's crest is low, smooth, and continuous.
What should I do to help newts in my garden?
The single most useful thing is a pond, ideally with gently sloping sides, some submerged and marginal plants for egg-laying and cover, and no fish, since fish eat newt eggs and larvae. Around the pond, leave areas of long grass, log piles, and rockeries where newts can shelter and feed on land, and avoid slug pellets and other pesticides. Newts will find a suitable new pond on their own, often within a year or two. There is no need, and in Britain it is not permitted, to move newts from one place to another.
Do smooth newts hibernate?
They become inactive rather than truly hibernating. Through the coldest months, from roughly November to February in Britain, smooth newts shelter on land in frost-free places such as under logs and stones, in compost heaps, in old walls, and in the burrows of other animals, sometimes several together, and their metabolism slows right down. They will emerge and move about on mild, wet nights even in winter. In late winter the adults make their way back to the breeding ponds, often the same pond every year, to begin courtship.