UNUSUALLY LARGE SMOOTH NEWT
Pricey Sir,
On the 18th October, 1977, I acquired a Frequent or Clean newt of outstanding dimension, it measures 101 millimetres from head to tail, and was present in a suburban space of Southampton.
Up to now I’ve had many newts of such species, however by no means one so giant.
Malcolm Smith provides in his “New Naturalists” guide the utmost size for a 4 yr previous feminine easy newt as being 97 millimetres.
The newt I’ve got here from a small fish pond in a again backyard, the place there have been many such newts, however of smaller dimension.
The grid reference is Map SU41/51 lat. 142 Lengthy. 444. I’d be very grateful if you happen to would inform me if this specimen is the longest reported.
Yours faithfully,
C.G. Packham
The letter appeared within the E-newsletter of the British Herpetological Society, December 1977.
C.G. Packham is in fact the BBC wildlife presenter, Christopher Gary Packham, then aged 16.
