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Description
Just something to celebrate Newt Day to raise awareness about salamanders, their habitats, and their role in the ecosystem. Even though the look like lizards, they're actually amphibians (like frogs and toads) and they are salamanders, except they're in the subfamily Pleurodelinae. The terrestrial juvenile phase is called an eft. Newts are semiaquatic, alternating between aquatic and terrestrial habitats (unlike other members of the family Salamandridae). Not all aquatic salamanders are considered newts however. There are more than 100 species of newts that are found North America, Europe, North Africa and Asia. Newts metamorphose through three distinct developmental life stages: aquatic larva, terrestrial juvenile (eft), and adult. When they become adults, newts have lizard-like bodies and return to the water every year to breed, otherwise living in humid, cover-rich land habitats. Like that in some salamanders, brightly-colored newts produce toxins in the skin to protect themselves against predators. Besides that, some newts use unique strategy which effectively repels many animals and some even secrete gelatinous, toxic substance around their eggs to protect them against aquatic predators. Like frogs, toads, and other salamanders, however, newts face a handful of threats, three being habitat loss, fragmentation, and pollution. Several species are classified as endangered and at least one species has gone extinct so far recently, that being the Yunnan lake newt. But, like their fellow salamanders, newts are important to the ecosystems they live in. As they go through their daily lives, newts preform very important functions that inadvertently benefit us. Two services are the cycling of nutrients from water to land and back again, thanks to their complex life cycles and controlling populations of aquatic insects, including mosquitoes. We can help newts by:

1. Avoiding handling them (due to their absorbent skins)
2. Keeping them wild and not abducting them from their home in the wild
3. Staying chemical free
4. Not supporting the Tourist Trade
5. Use artificial lures (and NEVER use newts (or salamanders) as fishing bait. They feel pain and have feelings too, ya know).
6. Use reusable chopsticks (made from plastic and/or reusable material)
7. Leaving natural areas natural
8. Helping protect natural areas, including wetlands.

With all that said, Happy Newt Day to one and all (especially from this bunch gathered here).

Note: Forgive me for this being late, I had some errands to do and I forgot to upload it earlier (my bad!). Plus, Newt Day is actually a holiday celebrated by many fans of a novel series called Maze Runner on the 250th day of the year, because the death of a character who had the same newt of the amphibian was on Page 250. This day usually falls on the 7th of September, except during leap years, in which Newt Day will be on September 6th. Even though it really wasn't about the amphibians themselves, I'd figure to mark this day to celebrate them anyway.

Description
Just something to celebrate Newt Day to raise awareness about salamanders, their habitats, and their role in the ecosystem. Even though the look like lizards, they're actually amphibians (like frogs and toads) and they are salamanders, except they're in the subfamily Pleurodelinae. The terrestrial juvenile phase is called an eft. Newts are semiaquatic, alternating between aquatic and terrestrial habitats (unlike other members of the family Salamandridae). Not all aquatic salamanders are considered newts however. There are more than 100 species of newts that are found North America, Europe, North Africa and Asia. Newts metamorphose through three distinct developmental life stages: aquatic larva, terrestrial juvenile (eft), and adult. When they become adults, newts have lizard-like bodies and return to the water every year to breed, otherwise living in humid, cover-rich land habitats. Like that in some salamanders, brightly-colored newts produce toxins in the skin to protect themselves against predators. Besides that, some newts use unique strategy which effectively repels many animals and some even secrete gelatinous, toxic substance around their eggs to protect them against aquatic predators. Like frogs, toads, and other salamanders, however, newts face a handful of threats, three being habitat loss, fragmentation, and pollution. Several species are classified as endangered and at least one species has gone extinct so far recently, that being the Yunnan lake newt. But, like their fellow salamanders, newts are important to the ecosystems they live in. As they go through their daily lives, newts preform very important functions that inadvertently benefit us. Two services are the cycling of nutrients from water to land and back again, thanks to their complex life cycles and controlling populations of aquatic insects, including mosquitoes. We can help newts by:

1. Avoiding handling them (due to their absorbent skins)
2. Keeping them wild and not abducting them from their home in the wild
3. Staying chemical free
4. Not supporting the Tourist Trade
5. Use artificial lures (and NEVER use newts (or salamanders) as fishing bait. They feel pain and have feelings too, ya know).
6. Use reusable chopsticks (made from plastic and/or reusable material)
7. Leaving natural areas natural
8. Helping protect natural areas, including wetlands.

With all that said, Happy Newt Day to one and all (especially from this bunch gathered here).

Note: Forgive me for this being late, I had some errands to do and I forgot to upload it earlier (my bad!). Plus, Newt Day is actually a holiday celebrated by many fans of a novel series called Maze Runner on the 250th day of the year, because the death of a character who had the same newt of the amphibian was on Page 250. This day usually falls on the 7th of September, except during leap years, in which Newt Day will be on September 6th. Even though it really wasn't about the amphibians themselves, I'd figure to mark this day to celebrate them anyway.