ALPINE NEWTS COURTING - Mesotriton alpestris alpestris

I made another stupid error and without realising it, until after an hour searching for newt eggs, I realised I had lost some newts that had gone walkabout.

I was left with a single plump female Alpine Newt that was plump with eggs and I had just spent an hour looking for what turned out to be infertile eggs! Dumb-arse!

Anyway I picked up a male from someone I know, as the female still looked plump, and I plonked him in the tank.

Only immediately I noticed the female rushing across the tank towards him and at first I just assumed she saw the movement and thought he was potential food?

But I decided to watch and when she got up to him she nudged at his cloaca region continuously and I grabbed the camera. He immediately started tail fanning her, where he came out of a cage 3 minutes before with no tail fanning going on. Then to my surprise she started tail fanning him?!

I had not seen this behaviour in any female newt beforehand and I have been doing this a very long time.

I had figured that I had come across a unique event which was bought about by a very plump female wanting to lay the rest of her eggs who had spent a whole winter with no male and no scent of a male in her aquarium. I had emptied the water out twice so there would not have been any scents at all in the water.

Then with her fit to burst and had already laid half a dozen female eggs I drop in a male Alpine Newt still in condition, mostly, and she must have picked up his scent and rushed over to him.

He had come out of another tank that had several other Alpine Newts of both sexes and I had not seen any courting going on at all but yet after having his cloaca nudged and a little tail fanning from the female his immediately started tail fanning her!

They then spent a long time following each other around the small aquarium they live in.

I guess I will get fertile eggs from these two after all?

I have several pictures for viewers and I even have a video of that female tail dance ...

PYRENEAN FIRE SALAMANDERS (S.s. fastuosa) - IMMATURE

After a lengthy hiatus caused by health issues brought about by a couple of evil UK public services I am ... back.

After 2016 got ruined in so many ways by so many different people I now plan to get my content not only back to to where I was, frequency wise, two years ago but fully intend to go way beyond that even.

I have had several things in development but did not want to say too much about them previously and I still do not want to say too much.

Among many things there are two main ones and these are now both inevitable and the one that will bring about the biggest changes by far I am now in the period of which it could end. This is an 8 to 12 week period and I could be theoretically into week 10. So it could finalise in two weeks.

However ... more a subject for my corruption blog and at a later date ... another evil failed public service refuses to state if they are working on this when they are working on it or even when it is likely to end. When you realise what it is you will ask yourself why in the world they are refusing to release this information. Trust me on that and even my landlord and landlady are absolutely dumbstruck about their attitude believing I have every right to be told.

It is not just me and there are at least 8 of us in the exact same boat.

I also have something else ending in about four to eight weeks and I hope the two things coincide but I hope to at least be informed about the former before the latter ends.

When the details of this one are realised it will become obvious some major changes are going to take place but I am not sure how much and in theory, at least, these changes could well be humongous. But for an unknown criminal factor. Lol.

The other of the two things will also bring about its own changes too and it has already motivated me into action.

Even today I will shortly be off out to acquire content to be uploaded to various blogs and my YouTube channel.

I have still been up to many things ... just my actions and endeavours took a wild hit during 2016 ... but ...

Anyone recall the Giant Pyrenean Fire Salamanders I own giving birth? Well here is a video of two of those now not so youngsters ...

The bigger one in thew video is at least 4 inches long.

There are three, was four but stupid schoolboy error cost me one of them.

Also keeping an eye on adults as in around a month or two new babies should appear, more than there was last year and a great deal healthier this time around.