Common or smooth newt (Triturus vulgaris or Lissotriton vulgaris) is one of the three representatives of newts found in Slovenia. Like all newts, the common newt also has a laterally flattened tail, which serves well for swimming, and an inconspicuous parotoid gland on the nape. The newts are also characterized by sexual dimorphism, which is noticeable especially during the breeding season. At that time males of the common newt develop a pronounced jagged dorsal crest and a swimming membrane between the toes of the hind legs, the ventral part of the tail in males becomes vividly blue and red, while females remain inconspicuously colored for life. Outside the breeding period, males are also similar to females.
For the common newt, a dark-spotted orange belly and a pink throat are characteristic! The mottled orange belly on the sides transitions to yellowish or white color, which in turn gives way to olive-green-brown backs, which are also dotted with darker spots.
It is widespread throughout Slovenia. Its habitat consists of more or less permanent, small to medium-sized, standing or slowly flowing bodies of water without rib, as these feed on its eggs and larvae. It can coexist with fish only in shallow parts of water that are densely overgrown with aquatic vegetation, among which it can hide. In water it feeds on aquatic invertebrates, for example water fleas and insect larvae, on land it preys mainly on earthworms and snails.
Most of the year it spends on land, where it mainly hides in various shelters in the bank-side vegetation, in moist meadows, in hedgerows or forests near the water body, where it reproduces. On land its skin thickens, but when it returns to the water to breed, its skin becomes smooth again. The breeding period lasts from March to June. Males in courtship colors at the breeding sites await females. Spawning is most lively at dusk, in the morning or in the evening. The fertilized eggs the female lays over a period of a few weeks, as she individually wraps each egg in a leaf of aquatic vegetation. During this time she lays between 200 and 300 eggs, from which larvae hatch, which live in the water until metamorphosis.
The common newt is protected in Slovenia and, as a vulnerable (V) species, is listed on the Red List of endangered amphibians!
