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Rough-skinned Newt
Yellow eyes? Check.
Orange belly? Check.
Brown skin? Check.
Deadly neurotoxin skin secretion? Check.
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The Humboldt Herald 
The California Newt was known as a “Water Dog” before the newcomers renamed them.
They are commonly found in ponds and the Eel River in the summer, and head for the hills in the winter to live under rotting vegetation.
We didn’t know that they were poison when we were kids, the water snakes (Now called Garter Snakes) used to eat them. We used to gather them in a gallon jar then turn them loose again, because they weren’t allowed in the house. (Imagine that)
Garter snakes are one of their few predators because of their toxicity.
When I was a kid the forested gullies around Ridgewood Heights had lots of water dogs. Playing with them and gathering frog eggs to watch the cycle from tadpole to frog was an educational and fun experience. I had no idea they had neurotoxins but that makes sense since they appear to be so defenseless and were thriving. I haven’t seen one in years. Are there fewer now or is it just that my eyes are further from the ground and don’t see them?
Are they all orange when they are young? I have newts and orange salamanders living in the woods near Trinidad. Just wondering if they were the same.
That’s a rough-skinned newt. On California newts the orange on the belly reaches up to the lower eyelid. They occur further south and inland.
(Unless there has been some taxonomic lumping since my Peterson Field Guide was printed.)
Thanks for the hi res. photo, and I think the toxic skin thing still applies.
I was wondering about that rough skin too and looked it up Chris since I don’t recall them being rough at all.
http://www.sdnhm.org/fieldguide/herps/tari-tor.html
says:
“The California Newt undergoes a number of changes during the breeding season. Terrestrial, non-breeding adults have warty skin and are not slimy. Aquatic, breeding males develop smooth skin, swellings around their cloacal openings, and a fin-like tail.”
What I meant is that the newt in the picture is not a California Newt, it’s a rough-skinned newt, different species.
Rough-skinned newt:
http://www.californiaherps.com/salamanders/pages/t.granulosa.html
California newt:
http://www.californiaherps.com/salamanders/pages/t.t.torosa.html
They are pretty similar in most respects, but the orange reaching up to the base of the eye is the mark of a California newt (not present in Heraldo’s photo). I believe California newts don’t really occur north of Mendo.
Chris, thanks for the correction. I think you’re right.
Thanks for those great links too, Chris. Fascinating. If computers had been around when I was a child I wouldn’t have been playing video games on them. Oh my, I’m starting to sound like my parents did about TV :P
I played with them in the rivers as well. I actually picked one up the other day- it was on a trail and I thought it would be stepped on, so I thought I should move him to a more protected area. What is the danger with these and why did we all play with them without harm? Are there two types around here (toxic and non toxic?)??
Just don’t eat one, Anony.Miss.
Okay- I read Chris’s links- what I am used to seeing are definitely the rough-skinned newts, and since I never ate any of them, I suppose it is why I never had any problems with the neurotoxins.
fun, nostalgic topic for me, thanks.
I see while I was gone that the “Water Dog” as we used to call them turned from a “California Newt” to a “Rough Skin Newt”. That’s that trouble with those scientific names, there is too many of them.
I don’t know what the Indians called them, but I would wager that they were called water dogs before they were called a Rough Skin Newt.
The water dog is kind of unique in that it only grows in the Pacific North-West. Along with the the Giant Pacific Salamander.
Kym nailed a great photo of a Giant Pacific salamander in Hacker Creek
http://kymk.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/hacker-owner-in-thailand/
Cut and paste, I don’t know how to make html work on this site.
Pacific Giant Salamanders bark (vocalize) and climb trees.
Customarily, there is only one scientific name per animal/plant/fungi, though common names for any being may vary.
“…there are sets of international rules about how to name animals and zoologists try to avoid naming the same thing more than once, though this does sometimes happen. These naming rules mean that every scientific name is unique.”
Mud puppies are called water dogs.
In many parts of the US, neonatal Tiger Salamanders are referred to as water dogs.
Don’t lick the newts!
Save the Newt, but get rid of those non-native creeping buttercups!
I wonder if that’s the same newt that showed up in Don Garlick’s Notebook in the latest NCJ?
I hate those buttercups! They are certainly the spawn of satan because their roots go almost to hell. Slaughtering them by cutting and pulling does no good, they almost seem to relish it.