Wes Note: Feral Red-ear sliders all over, pet iguanas taking over Florida ... and now newts taking over the arctic! When will the terror stop?!! Actually, it's an interesting item about newts from an area that we herpers seldom think about!
Cheers
Wes
SITKA SENTINEL (Alaska) 11 June 05 Poisonous newts establish beachhead in Southeast city - Critters from nearby islands released in terrarium mishap. (Andrew Miller)
Photo at URL below: Roughskin newts have spread on Baranof Island since many escaped a terrarium at Sitka High School last fall. A state biologist warns against handling the poisonous creatures. (Photo courtesy of Alaska Department of Fish and Game / via The Associated Press)
Sitka: A science project gone awry has resulted in the introduction of a new species of amphibian to wetlands around Sitka.
Last fall, a Sitka High School student collected about 50 roughskin newts on neighboring Kuiu Island and brought them back for a school project. The small, poisonous creatures later were kept in science classroom terrariums, but many escaped when a terrarium was knocked over while being cleaned outside the school in September.
When newts were observed near the school shortly afterward, the connection was made to the terrarium accident. No further sightings were reported until this month, in marshy areas farther away from the school.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said that newts were not previously known to live on Baranof Island.
Fish and Game area management biologist Phil Mooney said the newts are generally tan or dark brown with reddish orange undersides. He said the adults can grow to 8 inches long and live more than 25 years.
Mooney cautioned that the newts are poisonous and should be handled carefully.
"They're not very big, but they can be potent," he said.
Mooney said his intention is not to create an alarm, since the newts are "few and far between" and nonaggressive, but he has informed medical providers that the newts are in Sitka. He also informed media to alert parents to inform their children to wash their hands after coming in contact with the newts.
Mooney said his hope is that people don't go looking for the newts and don't disturb them if they find them accidentally.
Sara Larsen, a Fish and Game commercial fisheries permitting specialist, said the release of the newts in Sitka is a violation of agency regulations. She said the student who took the newts from Kuiu Island did not have a permit and the teacher who kept them in his classroom also did not have a permit. Larsen said the proper permit for keeping the newts prohibits their release into any environment other than that from which they came.
Roughskin newts get their name from the small bumps on their skin, which are actually clusters of glands that secrete a neurotoxin. Mooney said a pet could die from eating one of the newts, and he noted there is one documented case of a human death -- a man died after eating a newt on a bar bet.
The traditional range for the newts is from California to Southeast Alaska. A Fish and Game fact sheet states that newts have been reported as far north as Juneau but are most highly concentrated in southern Southeast on Prince of Wales, Revillagigedo and Gravina islands.
Kuiu Island, where the Sitka newts apparently originated, is just east of the southern half of Baranof Island.
Mooney said roughskin newts have been found on two small islands in Sitka Sound since the 1980s after someone apparently introduced them there.
"They've been confined there probably because they can't get through the salt water very easily," he said.
Mooney said the newts have joined the boreal toad as being the only amphibians living on Baranof Island, and he said he expects they will thrive in Sitka if humans and animals don't catch them all before they can reproduce.
"They're actually very attuned to this kind of habitat. They probably will do very good here," he said.
