Newts:aquatic??

[amy]

are newts considered aquatic, b/c me and my friend were playing 20 questions and she said is the animal aquatic, and i said yes, and when she lost, she said that they are not aquatic, but are amphibians, which i knew. urg, i just need help.

 

[matt]

if newts are anything like axolotls then yes newts are aquatic

 

[Jennewt]

Some newts are almostly completely aquatic, some newts are almost completely terrestrial, and most of them are somewhere in between.

 

[matt]

Are newts avalable in australia?

 

[Jennewt]

Newts are actually ILLEGAL in Australia.

 

[matt]

Dang oh well I will just have to get satisfaction out of axys then

 

[kaysie]

that could probably be because of australia being an island, and introducing non-native species would ruin the ecosystem (think rabbit problem)

 

[steve]

Hey MATT come live in USA. BUT not Oregon from (what i hear) I heard you can't even have kids. LOL

Anyways, Like Jennewt was saying they are both. Take these excerpts from different sources:

from: American Heritage® Dictionary
"living chiefly on land but becoming aquatic during the breeding season."

from: Webster's Revised
"Any one of several species of small aquatic salamanders"

from: WordNet Princeton University
"small usually bright-colored semiaquatic salamanders of North America and Europe"

So, It seems it's who you ask. I say BOTH, so you WON! LOL}

 

[aaron]

There are actually populations of T. vulgaris living in the wild in Australia.

~Aaron

 

[caleb]

Hi Aaron,

Have you got any more details of these introduced T. vulgaris in Australia? I'd be intrigued to know more. I corresponded for a while with a guy in Australia who kept T. vulgaris. He said he had to reverse the seasons to keep them- they were in the fridge over the summer, and he brought them out to breed in the winter.

 

[aaron]

I'll have to talk to Phil some more about them. I'll post whatever I turn up.

~Aaron