A Common Newt

When I lifted up a piece of broken concrete I found this newt (I had thought it was a lizard) and although I left the concrete out of the way it never moved a muscle during several return visits. The following clip also shows it, with other creatures moving around as well. It was very wet under the concrete and under some boards nearby there were 4 more like this one, though one was lighter in colour.
I couldn't put the piece of concrete back for fear of harming the lizard so after producing some video and asking the neighbours to take a look I left it to find its way to safety.
I'm sorry to say that next day I found the newt dead. It seems that it was the shock of having the piece of concrete lifted that may have done it. Possibly it was the decompression, because it was very wet under the concrete.
In the UK, Common Newts are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. That protection only means that they can't be bought and sold. It was still legal to disturb them in the wild.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• common
• newt
• salamander
• caudata
• garden
• wildlife
• market
• harborough
• leics
• leicestershire
• northants
• northamptonshire

[piggylover321]

aw, poor newt. i hope it's death was quick and painless. :(

[andrewburbidge]

It was a bit surprising to lift something in the garden after wet weather and to find this newt staring at me. It must have been killed almost instantly but a brain lives on until the oxygen content declines, I think. So, probably it could see me as its systems were slowly failing. Very sad.

[thefrogVideos]

Man, that things dead

[andrewburbidge]

You're right. It was dead, and I think it was the force of lifting the piece of concrete off it that did it because of the suction effect of the water. I'd be reluctant to go looking under things like that again.

[conncork]

I think it is a newt and not a lizard

[andrewburbidge]

Thanks. I think you're right and when I first saw it I thought it looked like salamanders I'd seen. But I couldn't find a reference for salamanders in the UK. Later, I saw that newts are salamanders.

[cptfck]

definateley dead