Story by Harvey Thommasen with Photography by Mike Wigle

Late in the fall I look for rough-skinned newts (Taricha granuloma) emerging from ponds, slow flowing streams, and marsh puddles, as they seek winter retreats in nearby woods.

Rough-skinned newts, despite their name, are one of the more charming companions an angler will find along coldwater trout and salmon streams. They seem lethargic animals, and are easy to pick up. They don't have to move quickly, because they fear few predators, being among our most poisonous North American creatures.

The upper surface of the rough-skinned newt is brown, and covered in numerous little bumps. Within these bumps are glands which produce tetradotoxin, a potent nerve toxin. If that toxin got on your lips or tongue, you would experience tingling, a loss of motor coordination, numbness, muscle paralysis, convulsions and maybe even death. Tetradotoxin is the same poison found in the famous puffer fish which is said to 60 per cent fatal in humans.

The underbelly of the rough-skinned newt is smooth, and coloured a bright orange. Newts show off their bright underbellies by arching their back, and lifting their head and tail whenever they feel threatened.

Amazingly, garter snakes appear to be immune to the toxic effects of tetradotoxin. And as far as anyone can tell, are the only predator of rough-skinned newts.

Newts make two migrations a year. In spring they all move back down to the wetland from the woods to breed and lay eggs. Many are killed during migration as they attempt to cross the roads that so often parallel our rivers. The ones that make it back to the ponds look forward to a season of elaborate courtship and mating. Fertilized females lay single eggs, attaching each to the underwater vegetation or debris. After three weeks or so, tiny, gilled, legless newtlets hatch from the eggs. Over the summer, the gills resorb, legs grow, and they grow to look more and more like the adults.

Like other salamanders, rough-skinned newts feed on all kinds of little animal life including freshwater shrimp, insect larvae, frog eggs and tadpoles. On land they like to eat insects, slugs, and worms. The adults seem content to spend summer months at the bottom of puddles, ponds, and slow moving streams. In late fall, both adults and juveniles leave the water to begin life on land in the damp, deep woods.

Over the years there seem to be fewer and fewer rough-skinned newts. I don't know if this is because I spend less time looking for them, or because there really are fewer. Around the world, the number of frogs (Rana spp), toads (Bufo spp), and salamanders (Ambystina spp) is certainly falling. It is a disturbing phenomenon, one that suggests that there may be more wrong with our environment than we choose to believe. Amphibians, like the steelhead, serve as indicators of the overall condition of the environment. This is because the life history of amphibians is such that they are intimately associated with many facets of the environment - water, soil, and sunlight.

The eggs and larvae live in water, the adults live on land. Unlike other land animals, amphibians tend to be homebodies. If something is amiss in their environment, they can't readily pack up and head of to a more desirable location. Studies suggest that habitat destruction, chemical pollution, acid precipitation, global warming, increased ultraviolet radiation, introduction of exotic species, harvesting by humans, and natural population fluctuations all contribute to declining world wide amphibian population.

In British Columbia, for example, amphibian habitat is destroyed when large tracts of forest are clearcut, when wetlands are filled, when roads are pushed into wilderness, when houses and cottages are constructed, and when fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and industrial chemicals find their way into water habitats.

But when was the last time you ever heard anyone ask how a proposed development would affect rough skinned newts.

Maybe it’s time we started paying more attention to this timid little creature, which may be trying to warn us of the changes that are taking place along our rivers and streams.