Great crested newt
Triturus cristatus
The great crested newt is our largest newt species, growing up to 16cm in length. It is dark brown or black with a warty roughish skin. Its underside is bright yellow or orange with black spots. In spring the male has a ragged crest along its back and a separate crest along the top of its tail.
Britain is an important stronghold for the species. It is widely distributed in England but with a decline in range and abundance in recent years. The main factor for their decline is loss of suitable breeding ponds which have been filled for developments and agricultural intensification or lost through natural succession or stocking with fish. Loss and fragmentation of terrestrial habitats has also been a factor.
Great crested newts are widely distributed across most of the Tees Valley but there are no current, confirmed records from Middlesbrough and few from around the lower Tees Estuary. As much of the land in the lower Tees Estuary is reclaimed, it is possible that great crested newts were never present in these areas. There are healthy populations around the Eaglescliffe and Cowpen Bewley area but otherwise populations seem to be small and fragmented. A number of populations would seem to have been lost due to the loss of breeding ponds but even more critically, many populations may be too small to be viable in the long term without enhancement of breeding ponds and surrounding terrestrial habitats. Although they typically breed in ponds that are fairly large and deep they can maintain reasonable populations in garden ponds and further research is needed into the extent to which this is occurring in the Tees Valley, perhaps with particular emphasis on areas where historic breeding ponds have been lost.
