Mass Great Crested Newt mortality

The Woodman · #1 (**permalink**) 22-03-2011, 05:19 PM

If you are aware of any GCN breeding locations near to roads or carparks that might be salted in freezing conditions, heed the following abridged case notes from the Veterinary Record this month.

In March 2010 75 dead GCN's were recovered from a car park in a car park in Cumbria. The carcasses of migrating newts were found in an area where roadsalt had been spread fifteen days earlier. A further twenty carcasses were found near a salt treated footway. A definative diagnosis was not made by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Penrith but circumstancial evidence indicates that roadsalt was the probable cause.

Late season salting in freezing conditions coinciding with warmer days that stimulate newts and other amphibians to migrate to breeding ponds can be problematic where the two meet.

Those who monitor, manage or have an interest in such GCN breeding places should perhaps have a strategy to prevent salt laden melt water reaching those places.

Migration routes often cross roads and car parks (as we've seen at least one recent thread) are often not known of by the owners and something we can make them and the county recorders aware of to assist in preventing occurances of this nature.