A most unusual newt
12th March 2010, FridayI have found what may be a very rare hybrid between the smooth and palmate newt in our garden pond at Northiam. I am aware of only three confirmed and one possible specimen found in the UK to date, with two others reported in France and the Netherlands.
From above the animal, a male, looks rather like a male smooth newt, brown with numerous dark blotches but with the more square profile found in the palmate newt, and the tail colouration is very palmate newt - like, with a pale blue margin along the base of the tail, and a central pale brown strip, bordered above by a row of dark spots, with one or two below. The tip of the tail was developing a rather coarse tail filament a few days after this picture was taken.
Seen from below, however, the throat is unspotted, with a hint of pink, but not as well developed as in the palmate newt. While the tail has a lot of similarities with the palmate newt, on it’s base, near the hind legs there is an orange margin, a characteristic of the smooth newt.
The hind feet are also somewhat mixed. Palmate newts have prominent black webbing between the toes, hence the name, whereas smooth newts just have a fringe of skin along the edge of each toe. This animal has a bit of both.
It has obviously only recently returned to the pond and features such as the crest, hind-foot webbing and tail filament are still developing, so I am keeping the animal in an aquarium and hope to post better photographs at a later date.