April 28, 2025

This is a Red-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) wearing a red-orange color as a warning to predators. In all stages of their lives they are poisonous. Their skin secretes tetrodotoxin, a potent poison. During their land dwelling juvenile stage in life they are particularly toxic, therefore the warning.

They start out living in fresh water habitats as an aquatic larval stage, much like a tadpole. They emerge from the water, still in the juvenile stage (as in this picture, above), to live on land sometimes under leaf litter for 1 to 3 years before returning to the water as an adult.

Here, a Red-spotted Newt living again in the water as an adult. Notice its new coloring. Fading from the juvenile, orange-red, to an olive green or yellowish-brown. The Red-spotted Newt can live for as long as 12 to 15 years.

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