Practically three weeks in the past we had a stroll by Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve in Hong Kong. On our regular stroll (beginning on the Yellow and ending on the Crimson routes) we had been noticing the harm to the paths and rails achieved by the large downpour attributable to the remnants of Hurricane Haikui in September. Basically that route goes up one facet of a hillstream and down the opposite. We observed a facet pond off the principle stream. A fast look confirmed a Hong Kong Newt (Paramesotriton hongkongensis) on a submerged department. After which we realised there have been round eight newts in there, clambering within the roots and branches, resting on the gravel or strolling throughout the ground. It’s within the winter months that the newts will be seen within the streams and ponds. They breed there, laying their eggs singly on submerged vegetation, and it might be that’s what a number of the newts we may see had been doing. I reality, is that an egg I can see half-encirciled by the tail within the first {photograph}?
Completely hidden was their ventral coloration of orange-red blotches. Beforehand, together with our time in Hong Kong they had been collected and offered on roadside goldfish stalls (which is how we obtained the one I photographed in 1966). They’re now protected.
Curious passers by had been informed what we had been doing staring with binoculars into the underside of pond because the newts went about being newts. May we have now began newting as a stylish vogue?. ‘Birding is soo over’, mentioned AJP, as we carried on and the combined flocks of birds didn’t materialise.
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| Seems like a newt egg to me |
Lastly one from 1966 to point out the ventral coloration:
