best hunters

Just curious if anyone has noticed a difference in hunting ability between newt species or individuals? It seems overall newts are rather poor hunters.(as in, are not very efficient at capturing their prey). Perhaps it is a learned ability? I'm just wondering how it is possible for an animal to survive in the wild when their is maybe 50% certainty of it capturing an easy prey item. Or is it that newts are adapted to hunt in a manner not possible in captivity?

+1 to your question.
My terrestrial cynops eat very very small mealworms (that's all I'm allowed to feed)

And they really suck at capturing prey.

I'm pretty sure some newts have better adaptions than others. For instance my Triturus Dobrogicus, I can tell they have a really keen sense of smell. Not only that they do strike at their food really fast. As soon as food is dropped into their tank they can sense it, pellet or live food. Comparing my Triturus Dobrogicus to my Cynops orientalis, their is a big difference in capability. I think all newts have a certian place in their own natural surroundings, and they are like how they are because of their natural habitats.

I agree that newts are not designed to eat in captivity as they would in the wild. I like to forcep feed most every individual in my collection and like others have noted I often wonder how some of these animals even survive in the wild! For the groups that do not take to forcep feeding (like Echinotriton) I just release prey into the enclosure and it eventually disappears. Obviously salamanders are able to capture prey just fine in the wild but again I agree that one would never realize this based on the clumsy feeding behavior observed in many captive observations.
Chip

I observed some C. e. popei juveniles hunting springtails. A decent success rate. But the efficiency simply cannot compare with, say, Bratachoseps which are incredibly accurate and can shoot from a good distance. But then Bratachoseps probably could not compete with the much more alert and quick Dendrobates who could probably mow down a patch of springtails way faster than either caudate.

Interesting on the dobros. My karelinii were quite aggressive feeders with a faster strike and a more powerful buccal pump but didn't seem to have much more finesse than Cynops. Anyone with Pachytriton care to comment?

I wonder if it may be that with no competition and living in areas with incredibly abundant prey their is little selection for hunting ability. Something like the phenomena of comparable snail and crab species being better armored/larger clawed in the Indo Pacific than the Atlantic, suggesting according to evolutionary biology that the evolutionary arms race has been progressing longer in the former region.

Something i"ve noticed with toads that might be relevant also to newts here is that captive reared individuals often appear to be less good at catching prey than wild caught ones. I suspect that naturally there is just a lot more selection to be a very good predator.

possibly...I'm sure people have seen the same from WC newts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0hIiNPvi1k

I just finished this video of my c. orientalis eating a bunch of things. Sometimes he misses but all in all he's a terminator! He only really has a problem with fruitflies as theyre kind of small and jump right before he goes to bite.

Interesting stuff! But you can't deny that newts seem less apt at prey capture than, say, lizards, fish, etc. even frogs. This all being said the hunting ability of Hymenochirus doesn't appear to be much better than newts.