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Help Me Identify childhood Salamanders/Newts! (Baltic region in Europe)

usafaux2004

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Hey all.

I moved to the US when I was 11. Prior to that, I used to troll the woods, and found many frogs/lizards/snakes/newts/salamanders.

Most of the salamanders/newts were small, maybe 3 inches long (not too different from Eastern Newts here). But this one time I visited an old Soviet town/base: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skrunda-1

There, in an old flooded concrete sewer pipe (not actually leading to a sewer), I found quite a few of the little lighter colored newts, as well as 2 of what the locals colladed "King Newts". They were quite large compared to the others I was familiar with. They were maybe 5-6 inches long, and black. I honestly don't remember them having ANY spots. Until recently, I also didn't realize I was poisoned by them. When leaving the town (and releasing them of course before hand), I had quite the nausea/headache. Only recently did I put two and two together to realize it was probably from handling them so much and not washing my hands.

I've done many searches for pictures of European newts/salamanders, but I've NEVER found one that didn't have spots. There's a black one with wart-like structures, but these were nice and smooth.
 

Azhael

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The only possible option for that location and that size are Triturus. Almost certainly T.cristatus.
They can be very dark which obscures the spots and when aquatic they are quite smooth to the touch.
Handling these newts, even if they secrete large amounts of toxins (they are visible as a white liquid) is unlikely to cause any symptoms. The toxins need to be in contact with open wounds, mucoses or be ingested to have any effect.
 

usafaux2004

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The only possible option for that location and that size are Triturus. Almost certainly T.cristatus.
They can be very dark which obscures the spots and when aquatic they are quite smooth to the touch.
Handling these newts, even if they secrete large amounts of toxins (they are visible as a white liquid) is unlikely to cause any symptoms. The toxins need to be in contact with open wounds, mucoses or be ingested to have any effect.

Just shy of 10 years old...probably didn't wash my hands...that's my theory.

As to your theory...quite possible. The picture here: OxARG: Great Crested / Smooth Newt Picture shows the "common" newt, which isn't too far from the US eastern newts, and looks quite like what I seem to remember from back then. As to the crested newt...the ones I caught certainly didn't have the crests, but that could be age related?
 
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