A salamander id

C

carl

Guest
i seen a salamander and it was about 3 inches long and bright orange all over it had a short tail and was found in the uk near a stream on a grassy muddy sort of area i dont have a picture but was wondering any ideas on what it might be
 
You know when you've been tango'ed.
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Hi Carl, There are no bright orange salamanders native to the UK. The native newt species are t.cristatus, t.vulgaris and T.helveticus. Compare pictures of them with what you saw. Hope that helps. Mark
 
i've heard somewhere that alpestris and either italicus or carnifex (can't remember which) have also been introduced into the wild in several counties, could it be a sort of leucristic animal?(probably spelt that wrong
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). Also i remember someone talking about an all orange triturus in the Netherlands a while back. but was it triturus like or salamandra like in build and shape?
 
What part of the country was it found? Any chance of going back, finding it and getting some photo's?

Will> there is a group of carnifex living wild in Birmingham could that be what you are thinking of?
 
Terrestrial smooths and palmates can look somewhat orange- more orangey-brown really. Three inches is about right, I wouldn't have said they have short tails, though.

Will- alpestris and carnifex have been introduced into the UK in various places. The best-known carnifex colony is in Surrey, they still survive there now, I believe. There are loads of alpestris introductions, you might be interested to know that there's been one in Shropshire.
 
this is in wigan in a massize woodland with fields around it i have looked and never seen it again
 
yes i heard about the shropshire one but i haven't found out where it is or if it is still there.
 
what shade of orange was it? was it bright orange or a browner colour.

can anyone give me any info on the shropshire population of alpestris?
 
The Shropshire alpestris were round Market Drayton, I think. There was a paper published on them in the Australian Journal of Ecology in the early 90s- I've read the abstract, but not the paper itself.
 
Colonies of alpestris are reported from Kent, East Surrey, South-East London, Birmingham, Shropshire, Sunderland and Central Scotland.
The paper that Caleb refers to is: Bell, B. D. and Bell, A. P. (1995) Distribution of the introduced alpine newt Triturus alpestris and of native Triturus species in north Shropshire, England, Australian Journal of Ecology 20 367-375
 
in half term i might go over there to try to find them, MD is not that far from me. Has anyone got a copy of that paper?
 
As always, colours can be difficult..especially when it comes to men as they often have colour blindness! Some see green instead of brown, some see orange instead of brown..it seems to be me who sees only brownish colours....? Some even see black salamanders of incredible sizes in pet shops...

Therefor, just logical thinking: the best chance is that it is a Triturus vulgaris (which can be very colour full and have some shade of orange when they are in land fase..but not like oranges
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.
But without a picture we can never tell...

Sergé
 
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