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albino smooth newt |
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JaySteel
Senior Member Joined: 07 May 2010 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 157 |
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Posted: 09 May 2016 at 3:51pm |
I just hope they turn up again. Maybe being albino / leucistic they don't like all the hot sunny weather we've had? Maybe tomorrow's predicted rain will bring them out.
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will
Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1830 |
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wow! Looking forward to some professional tank-based photos of these beauties.
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JaySteel
Senior Member Joined: 07 May 2010 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 157 |
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I thought I'd resurect this old thread. I went round to visit a lady in Kent who has the leucistic Smooth Newts in her pond. Unfortunately I was unable to find them today. She has a fairly large pond (12ft x 12ft) that's 5ft deep with about 12" of substrate at the bottom. The pond's full of Common Frogs with thousands of tadpoles, and anywhere between 50-100+ Smooth Newts. She has taken photos of two leucistic specimens in her pond but I failed to find them today in the depths of the water. She's going to catch one and give me a call if either of the leucistic specimens surface again. |
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sablemole
New Member Joined: 24 Mar 2012 Location: Ruyton XI Towns Status: Offline Points: 1 |
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We have an albino smooth newt in our pond this year. She appears to be laying eggs so the results will be interesting.
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kit
Senior Member Joined: 22 May 2011 Location: cheshire Status: Offline Points: 66 |
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cool pic i have never seen a albino one before!!!
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kit
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kithara
Member Joined: 21 Sep 2011 Status: Offline Points: 19 |
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thats ideed very interesting... rarely you see albino wc animals
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JamesM
Senior Member Joined: 12 Mar 2011 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 89 |
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That is interesting. I didn't think Albinism occured in Amphibians! |
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Noodles
Senior Member Joined: 05 Dec 2010 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 534 |
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excellent stuff
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will
Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1830 |
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Wow! thanks for all the conjectures folks! At any rate, whether it's albino or amelanistic it's a nice looking animal and the red eye suggests there's no dark pigment production I suppose.
I found out that the BHS article was about this very pond; also that albino toads had been recorded around twenty years ago in a pond just around the corner from the current location, so it's a situation with some history. I have argued that 'odd coloured' amphibians in garden pond situations may be to do with enhanced survival chances in the sheltered environment of gardens rather than in the Darwinian school of hard knocks out there in the wild. This wouldn't exclude the possibility of inbreeding producing more animals exhibiting colour variants in the first place, but equally a reduction in selection against brightly coloured morphs could heighten this phenomenon. |
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Noodles
Senior Member Joined: 05 Dec 2010 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 534 |
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That was my understanding of what amelanism was (lacking brown and black [melanin] but exhibiting other pigments), although i also recognise that true 'albinos' will often exhibit pigments accumulated from external sources during adult development(particularly yellow). Elsevier's dictionary of herpetological terms cites the very same. My understanding of true albinism is a lack of all pigments at birth(pink from the blood vessels being the only 'colour' exception)? I'll have a look at that book you mentioned. Many thanks for this Rob |
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