Eastern Newt
Notophthalmus viridescens
Eastern Newt 2
Identification
The newts start out about 1 inch long, but can get up to 4 inches long as a full grown adult. Red Efts are born an egg in the water, when they hatch they are bright orange with black dots. As they mature they grow lungs and leave the water to live on land. When the Newts become adults they become light green and go back to live in the water where they came from. Red Efts have 4 toes in the front and 5 in the back.
Niche
The Red Eft is a consumer because it eats other organisms such as insects to get its energy. The salamander is an omnivore; it eats plants and meats. Mainly the Red Eft eats insects, grass, and other small wetland animals such as snails or slugs. Because of the toxins in their skin, the Red Eft doesn’t have too many problems with predators. The most threatening predator for the salamander is us, humans.
Sources:
http://www.exploringnature.org/db/detail.php?dbID=43&detID=725
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnivore
Sources and Credits
- (c) redsquirrel4321, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
- Adapted by redsquirrel4321 from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notophthalmus_viridescens
