Eastern Newt

Photo Credit: Wisconsin DNR, Rori Paloski

Family: Salamandridae (Newts)
Status: Common
Size: 2.5 to 4 inches

Aquatic adults have smooth skin with orange and black spots on a brownish-orange to light olive-colored background. The ventral side is yellowish with many black flecks. Terrestrial adults are dark olive to brown above with a whitish ventral side speckled with black flecks.

Species range in Wisconsin

The skin of terrestrial adults is textured like medium sandpaper. The eft, the terrestrial juvenile phase, is primarily a plain brown-orange color with tiny black flecks throughout. Newts live in well-vegetated woodland ponds, roadside ditches and more permanent riparian wetlands. They eat small earthworms, snails, aquatic insects and other amphibian larvae.