C. pyrrho laying eggs on land?

[Chinadog]

I was just watching my fat females laying eggs, when one of them surprised me by climbing up onto her cork island and laying eggs in the wet moss! There's certainly no shortage of plants in their tank to choose from so i wonder why she decided to go up there?
sorry about the bad pictures, the island is hard to see and I didn't want to upset her!

 

[Kaysie]

In the wild, it might be a tactic to keep eggs safe from aquatic predators.

 

[Chinadog]

I'm starting to think she's worked out my other female is eating eggs as well as laying them. She's been back up on the island today and laid some more.

 

[Henry Janssen]

It isn't unusual for them to do so.

 

[Yahilles]

My orientalis also do this, Tim Johnson posted pics of ensicauda laying eggs near water line and my friend said he saw wild alpestris females laying eggs on leaves of a small grass growing on the bank of the pool. Seems to be a pretty common behavior for newts.

 

[Chinadog]

It sounds like it's normal behaviour then, although she didn't lay any up there last spring!
What a shame Tim Johnson doesn't post on here any more, I've learned an awful lot about C. pyrrhogaster by reading his threads and articles.