Salamanders in the UK?

[Tranced]

I was just wondering out of interest, are there any Salamanders that live in the UK? If so, which types?

I used to have a wildlife book years ago and was sure that it said there were a couple of species but I've never heard of anyone seeing one.

[Rob_D]

Hi Tranced and welcome to WAB.

Salamanders are not native to Britain - our native amphibian species are 3 newt species, 1 frog and 2 toads - 6 species in all. There are also 7 or 8 introduced frog and toad species including Midwife Toad and Marsh Frog. AFAIK, there are no established populations of wild salamanders in Britain.

Maybe someone knows why they are not native? Perhaps our climate is not right for them.

[Bullseye]

Salamanders,possibly did'nt make it back here after the last Ice Age before the English Channel formed, (latest theory for the Channel forming due to cataclysmic event quiet interesting).
Pedant alert !, frogs,there was (is ?) the Pool Frog as well,probably died out but,the Edible Frog is a viable cross between the Marsh and Pool frogs. Round here,East Sussex/Kent borders, I've seen the expansion of both Marshies and Edibles,always a lot more Marshies,but apparently Pool frogs are needed every few generations to keep the Edibles "going" as a seperent identity.It's all a real Taxonomy nightmare !.

[Rob_D]

Sorry yes, perhaps the Pool frog did once count as a native.

I may also have been a little hasty/pedantic about saying there are no salamanders in Britain because (according to wikipedia), our newts are members of the family Salamandridae - a family of salamanders consisting of true salamanders (Subfamily Salamandrinae) and newts (Subfamily Pleurodelinae). The Pleurodelinae also includes Genus Euproctus (Brook Salamanders) -3 species. So if you say that a newt is just a type of salamander, then perhaps Britain has 3 species of salamander, but we just call them newts.

[Bullseye]

Whoa there Pal,your getting even more pedandict than me (I'm borderline OCD,actually no I'm not !), we've got newts,there is a difference but it's been so many years ........Michael wanders away muttering "I used to know the diff....what was I saying?

[marvin]

broadly speaking newts return to water to breed whereas salamanders don't, but newts could reasonably be described as a type of salamander. richard dawkins certainly describes them as such.

tim

[Owen81]

There are many species of Salamander that could survive here in the UK mainly North American Species and some European species.

You may have been looking at a book of European Species where it is you would have seen the Fire Salamander listed.

[Tranced]

Cheers everyone, good info.

It probably was just a book of European Species.

[Bullseye]

Originally Posted by marvin

richard dawkins certainly describes them as such.

tim

Dawkins,[i]hhmmmm[i],while I agree with him on some things,his attitude to some research by others ,is well, "I don't believe that so I'm not even going to look at it".Research vs publicity (or ego),guess which wins everytime ?.

[LAF]

I have found anecdotal reports of introduced populations of fire slamanders but have not yet found any solid reference for them. Very possible, though.