Scotland: Build a Pond to Help Save Threatened Newt
The decline in numbers of farm ponds has left the threatened great crested newt with fewer places to breed and struggling to survive in Scotland.
Now Scottish Natural Heritage is calling on individuals to help out, through the simple act of helping to build a pond in their garden or community.
The great-crested newt, also called the warty newt due to the lumps on its skin, is the largest of Britain’s three newt species and is dark in colour, with a vivid orange belly covered in black spots. The handsome creature has been put on SNH’s Species Action List, as needing conservation action.
In the most recent survey, the newts were discovered in just 100 ponds across Scotland. Although they live most of their life on land, preferring rough grassland and woodland, they need ponds in which to breed. Before the advent of tractors and taps, farms used to be covered in ponds to provide water for animals, but today there is a shortage of places for the great crested newt to breed.
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