Palmate newt

Palmate newt
Lissotriton helveticus

Fact File

Range:	Adults rarely exceed 10cm. The back is usually brown or grey and the belly is yellow/orange and the throat is pinkish. There may be spots on the back and/or a thin stripe down the centre. Small black dots may cover the belly but the throat is unspotted. During the breeding season males develop bulky, webbed back feet and a thin filament on the end of the tail. They're widespread and common but are thought to be declining. Palmate newts are protected by law from trade/sale.
Photos (clockwise from left): Jules Howard/Froglife, David Palmer & Sivi Sivanesan/Froglife

Palmate newts look very similar to smooth newts but they have more of a preference for shallow ponds on acidic soils. They’re patchily distributed and found on heathland in the south and west and on moorland and bogs in the north; they're quite common in Scotland, Wales and southern England but absent from much of central England. Palmate newts can tolerate drier conditions than smooth newts and so can be found further from water.

A year in the life...

Spring	Adult newts emerge from their overwintering sites in early spring and head to a pond to breed. Males perform an elaborate courtship dance before the eggs are laid. Individual eggs are laid and wrapped up in the leaves of pond plants. At this time of year adult newts spend quite a lot of time in the water and will hunt frog tadpoles. Depending on local weather conditions, two to four weeks later larvae (sometimes called newt tadpoles) will hatch out. The larvae have feathery gills around the head, distinguishing them from frog and toad tadpoles. A couple of months after they hatch the larvae start to grow their front legs (again, different from frogs and toads), followed by the back legs.
Summer	When they have absorbed their gills, they leave the water as newtlets (or efts), around August.
Autumn	Autumn is spent preparing for winter. Newts feed on various invertebrates.
Winter	Palmate newts spend the winter sheltering under rocks, in compost heaps or buried down in mud. They don’t hibernate as such, and may take advantage of milder patches of weather to come out and forage.

Primary threats

Loss of habitats.

More on...
O Frequently asked questions about newts.
O Check out our palmate newt gallery on Facebook.