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Crestie vs Smoothy: |
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dave fixx Senior Member Joined: 13 Mar 2007 No. of posts: 319  View other posts by dave fixx |
Posted: 24 Apr 2008 On a recent newt survey up here in North Wales ,we witnessed what we at first thought was a male cresty lying dead in the pond,upon watching for a moment or two we saw that it was taking a break from eating a pretty large male smooth newt,has anyone else seen anything like this? Dave Williams davewilliamsphotography.co.uk |
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Huddy Member Joined: 09 Feb 2006 No. of posts: 18  View other posts by Huddy |
Posted: 24 Apr 2008 Interesting observation there Dave ! I was once surveying a quarry pond in cumbria in the early 90,s and I came across a male gcn eating a fully grown but very decomposed male palmate newt ,the pond in question had a great many gcn and much smaller numbers of palmate . What suprised me most about this observation was the fact that I had thought that newts would only take live prey . |
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Vicar Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 No. of posts: 1181 View other posts by Vicar |
Posted: 27 Apr 2008 I've not seen it in person Dave, but predation of smaller newts by GCN is well documented. Nice to have seen it though! 
Steve Langham - Chairman 
Surrey Amphibian & Reptile Group (SARG). |
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Alex2 Senior Member Joined: 16 Dec 2006 No. of posts: 266 View other posts by Alex2 |
Posted: 28 Apr 2008 [QUOTE=Huddy] Interesting observation there Dave ! I was once surveying a quarry pond in cumbria in the early 90,s and I came across a male gcn eating a fully grown but very decomposed male palmate newt ,the pond in question had a great many gcn and much smaller numbers of palmate . What suprised me most about this observation was the fact that I had thought that newts would only take live prey . [/QUOTE] Hi Huddy, Newts will feed on dead prey, i often feed thawed gamma treated blood worm to the vulgaris in my pond to give them an extra boost (not that they seem to need it). They go crazy for it. As a kid i used to catch newts on a piece of string with sliced beef heart, but admittedly the beef heart and blood worm are all items that are relatively 'fresh' and certainly not decomposed, so an interesting observation. |
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ben rigsby Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 No. of posts: 337 View other posts by ben rigsby |
Posted: 27 Apr 2010 ive seen a male GCN methodically sniff out (where many helvs + vulgs failed to notice) and eat, a dead earthworm buried at the pond floor. compared to vulgaris and helveticus, cristatus is a floor-dweller. it doesnt linger in the upper reaches like them and when it surfaces it dives back down immediately. slightly more leisurely at night. since thats primarily where it IS and so must feed, i wouldnt mind betting it has a better sense of smell than the other species. perhaps explaining the above. also seen a gravid fem helv (poss vulg- hard to id from plan view at distance) take a couple of mouthfuls of very decomposed adult rana. both observations this year Diversity. |
- Crestie vs Smoothy |