Greek Newt
Triturus vulgaris graecus (Wolterstorff, 1905)
Order Caudata
Family Salamandridae
Conservation status: in Bulgaria: Vulnerable VU [D2], BDA-III; International: IUCN-LC, BeC-III.
General distribution. The subspecies T. v. graecus is a Balkan endemic. It inhabits Greece, the Ionian islands, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, the far southern regions of Croatia and the southwestern corner of Bulgaria.
Distribution and abundance in Bulgaria. It has only been registered around the villages of Levunovo (Sandanski municipality) [1], General Todorov and Marikostenovo (Petrich municipality). Only some individuals have been found in each of the three habitats. There are no data about its numbers before 1985.
Habitats. A grassy puddle with stagnant water, 20 – 40 cm deep (the village of Levunovo); pools in the stony bed of a stream in a rocky locality overgrown with bushes (the village of General Todorov); a canal connected with the river Struma (the village of Marikostenovo). The altitude of the habitats is about 120 – 170 m.
Biology. There are no data about the subspecies. The nominal subspecies T. v. vulgaris, which is widely distributed in Bulgaria, inhabits mainly clear stagnant water basins with abundant underwater vegetation. Fertilization is internal. It lays from several tens to about 300 eggs singularly on the underwater plants. Metamorphosis is after 60 – 80 days. The adult ones leave the water around the end of May. On the ground they feed only during the night on small invertebrates. In the autumn they enter the water again, and winter there. The young ones (during the drying of the water basins – and the adult ones) winter on the ground.
Similar species. It differs from the nominal subspecies T. v. vulgaris by the fibre-like excrescence at the end of the tail during the reproductive season and by its non jagged longitudinal back crest, which in the nominal subspecies is jagged in a saw-like manner.
Negative factors. Unknown. Probably drying up and the pollution of the water basins inhabited.
Conservation measures taken. The habitat near the village of General Todorov falls within a zone of the European Natura 2000 ecological network.
Conservation measures needed. Protection against drying up and pollution of the known water basins inhabited; studying other water basins in the Petrich-Sandanski valley and declaration of some of them protected; control over the activities of the collectors of animals.
References. 1. Obst & Geissler, 1982.
Author: Vladimir Beschkov
