Where Do Newts Live? Ponds, Gardens and Winter Hideouts

Newts live a double life

Newts are amphibians, a type of salamander, and like many amphibians they need both water and land. Their eggs are laid in water, and the larvae grow up there, breathing through feathery external gills. After two to four months the larvae metamorphose, lose their gills and leave the water as young newts called efts.

Efts usually live on land for two to three years until they are mature. From then on, most European newts follow a yearly rhythm: a few months in the pond to breed, and the rest of the year on land. Adult great crested newts, for example, spend around seven months of the year out of the water.

Some newts break this pattern. Adult eastern newts in North America often stay in the water all year, while their young red efts wander the forest floor. Some smooth newts and great crested newts also remain in the pond if conditions suit them.

Where do newts live in spring?

In late winter or early spring, usually February or March, adult newts walk back to their breeding ponds on mild, damp nights. Most species prefer still or slow-moving water with plenty of underwater plants, because females wrap each egg inside a folded leaf.

Good newt ponds are usually sunny, at least partly, and free of fish, which eat eggs and larvae. Newts breed in natural ponds, farm ponds, ditches, flooded meadows, quarry pools, gravel pits and garden ponds. Larger species such as the great crested newt prefer medium to large ponds, while smaller newts will use small ponds and even shallow puddles that hold water until summer.

A few European newts live in flowing water. The brook newts of the Pyrenees and the mountain newts of Corsica and Sardinia are adapted to cold, clear mountain streams.

Where do newts live the rest of the year?

Once breeding is over, from about June onward, adults leave the water. On land they are mostly nocturnal and spend the day hidden in cool, damp places: under logs, stones, planks, bark and leaf litter, in dense grass and hedge bottoms, in old walls and in small mammal burrows. Several newts often share the same hiding place.

They come out to hunt earthworms, slugs, insects and other small animals on damp nights. Newts do not usually travel far from water. Great crested newts mostly stay within a few hundred meters of their pond, and rarely move more than about 1 km (0.6 mi). This is why the land around a pond matters as much as the pond itself: a pond surrounded by bare plowed fields or paving may have no newts at all.

Where do newts go in winter?

Newts hibernate rather than migrate. From about October or November, as temperatures drop, they move into frost-free shelters, usually on land and often close to their breeding pond. Typical hibernation sites include tree roots, log and rubble piles, compost heaps, stone walls, gaps under paving and old mammal burrows, often with several newts packed together.

They stay mostly inactive until February or March, although newts may move around during mild spells. Some newts, and occasionally larvae that hatched late, spend the winter in the pond instead, resting among plants or in the mud. Frogs follow a broadly similar pattern, as explained in where do frogs go in winter? For other species that sleep through the cold season, see animals that hibernate.

Which newts live in the UK?

Britain has three native newts, and each prefers slightly different places.

The three species often share ponds. Telling them apart takes a close look at the skin, belly and throat, as explained in how to identify a great crested newt. The alpine newt, a colorful species from mainland Europe, has also been introduced to a few sites in Britain.

Newts in garden ponds

Garden ponds have become important refuges for newts in towns and farmland where many natural ponds have been lost. Smooth newts are the most frequent visitors, but palmate newts and even great crested newts sometimes breed in gardens.

Ponds that suit newts are partly sunny, have plenty of native water plants and no fish, and lie close to cover such as log piles, rockeries and long grass. The best way to see them is with a flashlight on a mild evening in April or May, when adults are active near the surface. It is best to leave newts, eggs and larvae where they are; moving them between ponds can spread disease, and great crested newts are protected by law.

Where do newts live around the world?

There are more than 100 newt species, found in Europe, North Africa, Asia and North America. They are not native to South America, sub-Saharan Africa or Australia, although the smooth newt has been introduced to Australia.

• Europe and the Middle East: about 30 species, from the smooth and great crested newts of the north to the ribbed newts of Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
• East Asia: more than 40 species, from eastern India and Indochina to China and Japan, including the Japanese fire-bellied newt and the crocodile newts.
• North America: seven species. In the east, the eastern newt lives in ponds and lakes, while its bright orange red efts roam damp forests. In the west, Pacific newts such as the rough-skinned newt breed in ponds and streams from California to Alaska.

Newts are a branch of the salamander family tree, and many other salamanders live very different lives, as explained in newt vs salamander.