CONTRA COSTA TIMES (Walnut Creek, California) 17 November 05 Newts emerge for mating season (Ned MacKay)
It's newt season again in the regional parks. With the arrival of winter rains, these members of the salamander family emerge from their summer homes under rocks and logs, and migrate to ponds and streams to reproduce.
Newts are lizard-shaped animals about six inches long, though they are amphibians, not reptiles. They're brown to bronze in color, with gold-tinted bellies. During the dry season they estivate (the summer version of hibernation) in woods and fields. When the rains wake them up, so to speak, they get together in the water to make more newts.
Newts have almost no natural enemies, because their skin is toxic to other animals. Garter snakes can and do eat them. But their greatest threat probably comes from humans. Where their migration routes cross roads, the newts can be flattened by passing automobiles.
The best place to look for newts is in the water near the banks of ponds that have been refilled by winter rains. One likely place is the Maricich Lagoons at Briones Regional Park near Martinez. But probably the most obvious newt convention in the regional parks occurs at Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley, where the newts migrate annually across South Park Drive to reach Wildcat Creek.
So many newts were killed by automobiles while doing this that the East Bay Regional Park District now closes South Park Drive annually during the rainy season to protect the park's newt population. It's closed right now.
Collecting and removing any wildlife at all is illegal in the East Bay Regional Parks. So please, just enjoy watching the newts, then leave them in their natural habitat.
Naturalist Jessica Sheppard will lead a safari in search of newts and other amphibians from 9 to 10:30 a.m. this Sunday, leaving from Tilden Park's Environmental Education Center at the north end of Central Park Drive. It's free of charge, and reservations are not necessary. For information, phone 510-525-2233.
Newts emerge for mating season