leukistic female smooth newt

[derelict]

Firstly I 'm a fairly new arrival and secondly I don't follow this forum so this may have come up before...

I went to a very strange event a couple of weeks ago here in London - the Centre for Fortean Zoology talking about themselves - I'd describe it as like Gerald Durrell ... but with concussion...

One of the many things they showed was a "leucistic smooth newt"... this has now appeared on their monthly weblog:

On The Track: June 2008

it's a 20 minute film and the newt is not too far from the beginning

is this as amazing as they make it out to be or is they hamming it up? All comments welcome - e.g. is there really a black market for newts?

[serendipity]

The reptile and amphibian hobbyist trade is big buisiness and extremely high prices can and have been made for new colour and pattern morphs of all species and combinations there of. We are talking upto and possibly exeeding 100,000 pounds. hybrids such as burmese crossed with african rock albino also fetch high prices so yes they can be highly sought after and lucrative and a black market does and will exist!

[derelict]

My problem here is I know so little about the commercial side of amphibians that I can't tell if this is tongue-in-cheek or not. The amounts seem ludicrously large. Like most of the UK the only newt fancier I know of is Ken Livingstone and of course he no longer has access to the funds...

Can anyone else give a view? Or have I inadvertently caused you all to become cryptozoologists? I did notice that the story seemed to change in the film...

[marvin]

hi

i wasn't sure what to make of the video so posted it on another forum which is used by some of the country's most experienced herpetologists. unfortunately, apart from one skeptical response, it drew a blank there also. not sure exactly what this means but would guess that the lack of enthusiasm from other people is a sign that, for whatever reason, the video isn't something to get too excited about.

sorry this isn't more helpful.

tim

[serendipity]

Look in the classifieds KINGSNAKE.COM

[derelict]

Thank you both for that - it gives a little context to the claims made in the CFZ's film - I wasn't really expecting people involved in trading in British amphibia to stick their hands up - I just wondered whether it was fact or fantasy. How much credence do you give to people who have gone looking for things like "the Mongolian Death Worm"? I suppose the lack of response could be a conspiracy of silence but I won't go down that pathway! Still it would have been nice to know if leucistic smooth newts are as rare as the Fortean bod suggested... and I wonder if Boris Johnson's grant police will uncover any fraudulent newt-related grants as they go through the Mayoral accounts ...

[serendipity]

If its the first one discovered and there is a market for it here or in another country as a popular pet it WILL be worth a fortune to a hobbyist as an investment animal. this happens to all colour and pattern mutations of popular reptiles and amphibians. its value depends entirely on the market and whether a buyer thinks the animal is worth the investment. that said all white animals of any species are generally highly sought after and if in the hands of a knowledgable breeder are quite easily reproduced thus as the quantity of the animals increases the price drops as is the case with leucistic ball pythons (three types. blue eyed,black eyed and by adding the albino gene pink eyed) and leucistic texas ratsnakes, to name a couple.

[dampflippers]

" The smooth newt is protected only by Section 9(5) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This section prohibits sale, barter, exchange, transporting for sale and advertising to sell or to buy. Collection and keeping of these widespread amphibian species is not an offence."
...from another website.