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Newt Year Honours 2026

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Do you know someone who goes above and beyond for the UK’s reptiles and amphibians?

We want to celebrate the incredible individuals who give their time, passion, and energy to protect our species. Our ‘Newt Year Honours‘ is your opportunity to shine a light on someone truly extraordinary, those everyday heroes who make a real difference for nature.

If someone comes to mind, we’d love to hear about them!

Please email their name and the reason for your nomination to ashlea.mawby@froglife.org by 23rd December 2025.

Terms and Conditions

  • Please include the full name and contact details of your nominee so we can email their certificate.

  • Winners will be contacted in January 2026.

  • Kindly do not re-nominate last year’s winners, as we want to give everyone a fair chance.

  • You may re-nominate a previous winner after three years have passed since their certificate was issued

What our animals are doing this month

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Written by Eve Goddard, Transforming Lives Trainee.

Spring is the time when amphibians will be emerging from their overwintering sites to make their way to ponds ready for breeding season. Typically, they will head out at night, providing protection from some predators, favouring damp conditions suitable for their skin.

Our three native newt species, great crested, smooth and palmate will travel up to 500m to a suitable breeding pond. The males undergo physiological changes, for example; palmate newts will develop a filament on the end of the tail, and the smooth and great crested newt’s crests will grow in readiness for their aquatic display dance!

© Dave Kilby

Once mating has taken place, the females will be very busy, laying up to 300 individual eggs in vegetation in the pond, gently folding leaves around their precious eggs for protection. 

Newts may well have been beaten to the pond by the common frog, who can sometimes emerge far earlier – sometimes spawn will be seen from as early as January!

The common toad, adopting a more leisurely pace will tend to breed in late spring, heading back to the pond they were spawned from. They will travel up to an enormous 5km! Common toad’s spawn is laid in ‘strings’ of dual rows of eggs which will be wrapped around vegetation. The common frog’s spawn is laid in clumps or ‘rafts’ making it easy to distinguish the two.

With all this activity, Spring is a great time to head out on nature walks and see what you can discover in your local blue and green spaces. 

Don’t forget to record any sightings on our free Dragon Finder App!

Great Crested Newts

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Written by Paul Arestides, Transforming Lives Trainee

It’s in the name, great crested newts are the UK’s largest newt species. Adults can reach up to 17cm in length, with females growing larger than males. They are dark in colouration compared to other newt species and have bumpy skin with both males and females having bright orange bellies with large, blotchy dark spots. The males have a fantastic, jagged crest along their back and tail throughout the breeding season. Their tails also take on a white stripe towards the tip. The larvae have feathery gills around the head and a fine filament at the tip of their tail, they are covered in black speckles.

Great crested newts can be found across England, mainland Scotland and Wales but are absent from Ireland, the Isle of Man and some Scottish islands. Over the last few decades, the great crested newt population has declined and its range reducing due to loss of habitat and other ongoing pressures from farming practices. The species and its habitats are protected by law.

They are a ferocious predator of tadpoles, as well as aquatic and land invertebrates such as snails and worms. They also become predated by badgers, foxes, birds, hedgehogs and rats.

Like all amphibians, these newts take to the water to reproduce. The breeding season is between March and June. Males have an extravagant courtship display to win over females, by standing on their front legs, arching their back and waving their tail around as if they are dancing. Females then lay their eggs in pond plants, folding each leaf over the egg.

Preparing for Spring

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Written by Ellia Cobb, Transforming Lives Trainee. 

It’s almost springtime again! Reptiles and amphibians will be getting ready to come out of their brumation and begin their breeding season, so what can you do to help them? If you have a wildlife pond at home it is important to finish up any pond maintenance you might want to do before the weather starts to warm up. Disturbing breeding and egg-laying amphibians can be very harmful, so ensuring good pond maintenance is essential.

Preparing your wildlife pond for spring is a simple task as they don’t require much work. Cutting back reed and grass from the pond if it is too overgrown to allow more sunlight in can hugely benefit the pond, but remember to leave enough for the breeding amphibians! Another thing you can do is remove leaf litter and sediment build up from the pond to prevent a decrease in the water quality, but this should be done before spring. Anything that is removed should be left by the pond for a few days just in case any wildlife remains inside of it, this gives them time to make their way back to the water (please see our Just Add Water guide for further tips). 

Newts need vegetation to lay their eggs and toads and frogs need a safe place to lay their spawn away from predators.

The changing weather can be quite confusing for amphibians so it isn’t uncommon for them to start breeding earlier than expected, so don’t be alarmed if you spot any spawn or eggs quite early on. You do not need to move or disturb them. Newts need vegetation to lay their eggs and toads and frogs need a safe place to lay their spawn away from predators, so providing native pond plants and safe places for them to hide before spring starts is the best idea.

As for reptiles bramble, compost heaps, log piles, gorse and wooded areas are all places they may choose to breed in. This means that any garden maintenance shouldn’t be done during this time to prevent disturbance and endangerment.

You can find further information on how to make your gardens more wildlife friendly in our Idea Zone. 

 

Awesome Amphibians

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Written by Chloe Davey, Transforming Lives Trainee

Usually when you ask someone what their favourite animal is, the answer is typically either some kind of mammal or reptile. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that as there are many amazing species all over the world. The popularity of these kinds of animals could possibly be due to ideologies pushed towards the public eye, influencing their views on certain animals for better or for worse. This means that amphibians are often overlooked except for frogs and axolotls whose popularity with the younger generation have risen greatly over the last few years. So, I would like to express what makes amphibians so wonderful. Why should they be given more love and recognition?

As we know, amphibians are cold-blooded vertebrates that live on land and in water. They cannot generate their own body heat, instead they rely on the temperature of their environment. They will bask in the rising sun, absorbing the warm rays and preparing them for the day ahead. Did you know that amphibians are an ancient species? It’s true! Amphibians have been around for 340 million years!

Amphibians from around the world can come in many beautiful, vibrant colours but this means they are also incredibly toxic! Despite not being very colourful though, our very own common toad has a toxin which is used to deter predators although grass snakes seem to be unaffected by it.

Life begins in the water as eggs, newts will fold plant leaves over their eggs for better protection from predators. Once they are born, they have gills which allow them to breathe underwater and a long tail to help them swim.

During development they have the amazing ability to metamorphose. This means they can change their body structure, how cool is that? They grow arms and legs which slowly replace the tail over time. Some amphibians, like newts for example, will continue to develop their tail. They develop lungs which allow them to breathe air, replacing gills. Even without gills though, amphibians have special skin that allows them to breathe underwater by absorbing the oxygen.

Currently there are over 8,200 known species worldwide. Sadly, there are around 2,490 that are classified as endangered. I’m grateful that in the UK we have seven species of our very own including frogs, toads and newts. It may not seem like much, but we should protect them while we still have the chance.

If you’d like to learn more about our native amphibians, check out our web page. 

What our animals are doing this month

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Written by Nathan Gardner, Transforming Lives Trainee

Newt November!

As November comes along, we start to settle down on the couch with a warm mug of hot chocolate in hand. Our animal friends are also beginning to settle down as they begin their long slumber of hibernation.

However, newts (as well as other amphibians) do not hibernate, instead they ‘brumate’ (meaning they will come out to forage during warmer periods) which will usually begin from the start of November up until February. Being cold-blooded, winter is not the kindest towards reptiles and amphibians. Therefore, they will take refuge in warm, unfrosted areas such as the underside of log piles and even inside of animal burrows.

Surprisingly, newts can even brumate at the bottom of ponds, but these ponds must have certain requirements. They must be deep enough that the water does not completely freeze and have lots of dissolved oxygen. Newts have skin that can absorb oxygen through the water, therefore allowing them to stay underwater throughout winter.

Sweet dreams, newts! We look forward to seeing you next year!

 

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