Popular newt struggles to survive

[Frog News]

EDGE Blog (Zoological Society of London, UK) March 17th, 2010 11:24 AM: Popular newt struggles to survive

The little-known Luristan newt*(also called Kaiser’s spotted newt) is a highly attractive EDGE amphibian from Iran.* Its striking colouration is thought to provide a warning to potential predators of its toxicity.* Sadly, however, the remarkable appearance of the Luristan newt has also resulted in this species becoming highly prized in the pet trade, where collectors [...]
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[John]

I just posted a large comment on this blog entry over at the EDGE web site. It will be interesting to see if it makes it past their moderators.

[SludgeMunkey]

Your comments are on both sites as of right now John.

Thanks for sticking up for the little guys in there too!


I keep fighting the urge to send pictures of the couple hundred two-month old (plus) larvae and pictures of the now 16 clutches of eggs since December.

If a scruffy hillbilly can pull it off in his basement on a blue-collar budget while dodging frozen burritos thrown by his wife, anyone can propagate these guys to both supply the pet trade AND re-introduce them to the wild. I think the stigma of owning these animals is just as much to blame as the price for the complete lack of solid data of these animals in captivity.

The real problem is that they are not huggably cute and therefore garner no billion dollar sympathy like a certain black and white evolutionary dead=end we all know.

[John]

From my computer it appears that the Independent (though not EDGE) have removed my comment and also the ability to make comments. I'm pretty distressed about that. Shame on them for not being even vaguely impartial. Here's my original comment on the Independent Article:

Hello, I’m Dr. John Clare from Caudata.org, a web site dedicated to the captive care and breeding of newts and salamanders. Captive breeding accounts on our web site were referenced in Iran’s current proposal to list Neurergus kaiseri (Kaiser's Spotted Newt or Luristan Newt) as CITES Appendix I.

Firstly, regarding the prices, it is true that several years ago these newts could fetch such high prices, but it's rare to see them for sale now for much over USD $125, which is still exorbitant in my opinion. However, the simple truth is that captive bred Kaiser's Spotted Newts are becoming more and more common. A straightforward method to discern wild caught newts from captive bred is the age (or size, since the two traits are related in amphibians like newts). Wild caught newts and salamanders are invariably adults and adult size. This is because the animals are collected during breeding congress, since it is easiest to harvest them when they are all together in a small body of water. Captive bred newts and salamanders are invariably offered as small juveniles. The difference is night and day.

In my opinion, the protective listing of this species was needed over a decade ago, and now, given the precarious situation in which this species finds itself, it’s hard not to be pessimistic about its survival. With such low numbers left in the wild, yet the great success that private individuals around the world and institutions like Sedgwick County Zoo (USA) have had in breeding this species, listing the species in CITES Appendix I at this point would seem to be something of a “Catch 22″. The listing will obviously help to reduce wild collection but it will also negate any captive breeding efforts carried out by private individuals, limiting breeding of the species to institutions like zoos and aquariums. Sadly, these institutions must pick and choose the animals that they maintain, and in my considerable experience, newts rarely, if ever, make it into institutional collections due to their poor visibility as display animals and their specialist maintenance requirements. There is also very little expertise in institutions like zoos when it comes to newts and salamanders, and virtually no zoos have ever bred a species of tailed-amphibian.

So while I’m very much in favour of listing the species in CITES Appendix I, there is a large shortfall in the required expertise and newt-friendly grants/funding to foster captive breeding and reintroduction efforts.