Torch light amphibian safari

Here are some pics I took tonight whilst checking on my outdoor vivaria.



Female alpine newt in pond



Male on edge of alpine pond



same male at edge of pond



Fire salamanders not long emerged from hibernation



Female looking a little plump?????



fire salamander again



these rana tempora are wild in the big pond the males round here are very dark?



Some European yellow bellied toads that were hiding under a log in their viv.

I live in The far north of Co.Donegal, Ireland and when I decided to put some amphibians outside many people told me it would never work. I now hope to add some new species to the collection.

Nice good shots too, hopefully get some eggs soon, looking a little fat

they look great, it's good they survived the winter, but i expected them to survive, being in Ireland and all

good for you!

Nice pictures!
It would also be very interesting to see some pictures of your outdoor vivarias.
Greets David!

how do you feed the animals? or do you let them feed themselves? how large are the vivariums? do you mix any of the species?

(Message edited by will_j on March 11, 2005)

The vivariums vary in size from small coldframes, to greenhouses and open topped walled enclosures. some of the tamer animals such as the alpine newts will come to the surface to take worms from my fingers but I only rarely do this as you would be suprised at the amount of inverts that find their way into the enclosures, even the greenhouse.

i will take some pics of the enclosures in the daylight and post them soon.

which species do you keep together or don't you?

i'm thinking of making a couple outdoor vivariums, i was thinkinig of bombina bombina/variegata with triturus alpestris and salamandra salamandra with an undecided frog/toad/newt/salamander species.

what subspecies of salamandra do you have?

I keep no species together but plan on putting some hyla arborea in the greenhouse with the bombina variegata. the reason I dont mix is incase the newts eat frog or toad tadpoles saying they are more aquatic. when the anura breed the young can stay in the enclosure a lot longer.

I keep salamandra terrestris outdoors on their own.

There are various frogs toads and salamanders that can be kept outdoors very succesfully. A friend of mine keeps, midwife toads, tiger salamanders, banded newts, alpine newts, marbled salamanders, fire salamanders, common toads, great crested newts, palmate newts and axolotl outdoors.

I have some T. carnifex that I hope to move outdoors later this month and also hope to get some bombina bombina later this year.

If you want any more help or advice please dont hesitate to contact me with more questions

okay thank you, i've got some marbled salamanders, and to get them to breed it would be a good experiment to keep them outside but i'd never see them, and i'd get really worried, i'd need bold species like bombina so i would know how they were getting on.

btw, has anyone here from europe noticed any predation between triturus and bombina larvae in the wild?

thats great i wish i could have a outdoor vivarium like that if i did it would freeze over

(Message edited by carl_the_dude on March 12, 2005)

Freezing over is no problem at all. in fact it is good for the animals brings them into good breeding condition. as long as you have a good hibernacula it seems to work fine.

As to seeing your marbeld salamanders, they remain pretty active for most of the winter and everytime I have visited my friends collection most of his were visable.

still i'd be worried sick, i'll stick with bombina and triturus to start with, that is if i can persuade my parents to let me have one in the first place!