Triturus Cristatus

I got an female Triturus Cristatus, i realy want to start breeding them for release back to nature, but the T.cristatus is rare in my contry and i cant find a male.
Is it possible to get eggs sendt in the male?
I have had my female for 1,5 years and she has dobbeled her size.
Please help us we realy want offspring
Thanks
TH

Welcome to caudata.org, Thomas. Your post really belongs in the "Wanted in the European Union" area under "Advertisements":

http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/25/219.html?1085064807

Thomas, I think the idea to breed them for release back to nature may not be a good idea. You could accidentally introduce diseases to local amphibians, and you could change the genetic make-up of the cristatus population in your area. Before you do this, you should really talk to some local authorities on wildlife!

Newbie here, but looking at the site, note there are several subspecies and hobbyists often keep locality info tagged on there specimens. What about your female? In the aquarium hobby, fish that have somehow lost there location info are simply dubbed"aquarium strain".

Hi Thomas

I would echo Jennifers concerns. Release of captive bred newts into the wild is problematical for a number of reasons.
1. They could effect the genetic profile of the local wild newt population (I have local cases of cristatus/carnifex hybrids which represent a serious problem). 2. Captive bred newts rarely survive in the wild. 3. Potential disease transmission. 4. Within the European Union the unlicenced release of protected specie to the wild is a serious criminal offence.

I am a little concerned by the apparent availability of Triturus cristatus in the pet trade. Within the European Union the trade in T.cristatus is illegal and their posession in captivity strictly prohibited (European Species and Habitats Directive). While there is a grey area regarding the legality of captive populations which came into captivity before the laws enactment in 1994, trade in the species is certainly illegal.

Richard

Richard
Dont worry i am not going to release in the wild!
I just thought releasing them was a way of helping them.
Now i know that is not the right way to help.
Maybe i can stop some construction workers(destroying all the ponds) in stead

Hi Thoms

Shame you're not in England. I am in the process of installing about 9 miles of newt fencing and over 2,000 traps in a major mitigation project for a large development and could do with a hand. The traps have to be checked daily!
But anything you could do in Norway would be marvellous. I'll try to dig out some contacts for if that would help. Jan Malmgren would be a useful starting point, he's in Sweden but is more likely to know the Norwegian herp workers than me.

Rich

Hi rich,

nice to see you over on this forum too

That sounds like some serious development, how many amphibians are you guessing will be caught and moved from an area that size?

Hi Colin

It's an ongoing project I've been co-ordinating for over 2 years. The whole development is about 3 square miles altogether. The current phase is about 70 acres. Difficult to be precise about numbers at the moment. We don't move amphibians away from the site anymore. They are moved away from the immediate development area but only to adjoining safe habitat areas. I build habitat improvements into he process so that the wider meta-population is protected over time. The population will be monitored for at least 5 years after completion of the development. This particular one is I believe the largest brownfield development ever undertaken in Northern England. The largest translocation we have done up to now was a little over 8,000 amphibians. We had a 58% survival rate based on belly patterns the following year, which isn't too bad in the circumstances (it was an emergency job commissioned on behalf of English Nature).

Rich

Richard
Keep up the good work.
Its a pity you are not closer to here as I would love to be a volunteer on a project like this.