Red-bellied Newt (Taricha rivularis)

Created: March 23rd, 2020 - 01:06 AM
Last Modified: March 23rd, 2020 - 01:06 AM Posted anonymously
Record 333051

Country: United States		State: California	County: Santa Clara County	Time: 2020-03-22 15:00:00
Qty: 20	Age: Adult	Sex: Both	Method: Visual encounter	Habitat: oak,sycamore. doug fir, bay laurel forest, santa cruz mountains
Body Temperature: -----		Air Temperature: 45.00F	Ground Temperature: -----	Humidity: 99%
Sky Conditions: Drizzle		Moon Phase: -----	Elevation: 1800.00ft	Barometric Pressure: -----

Notes

Location is theTable Mountain trail, from the Grizzly Flat trailhead, on Skyline Boulevard, Santa Clara County, CA. You hike the trail down into the Stevens Creek watershed. On this afternoon, after some hard rain, following a very dry February, we saw almost 200 newts of at least two and possibly three species during a three and a half hour hike. Newts were so plentiful on the trail that when hiking, we had to take care not to step on any!

Red-bellied Newt - Taricha rivularis for sure

and as we are not herps experts, not sure if we saw exclusively California Newt - Taricha torosa ...or some Rough-skinned Newt - Taricha granulosa granulosa or both.

We are submitting this record because we are certain we saw many...20, 30 or more, Taricha rivularis individuals on the trail, today and it seems like their range is considered to be rather north of here.

Comments

Posted by Patrick Walker on Mar 25, 2020 at 07:12 PM

Taricha is known to this area and you may have seen both torosa and granulosa.

Posted by Alan Hebert on Mar 23, 2020 at 01:08 AM

I uploaded four photographs. Why are they not showing?

Posted by Alan Hebert on Mar 23, 2020 at 01:08 AM

This record should be available for anyone to view.