This year Durga Puja was a bit different. I didn’t go to
pandels to see goddess Durga but went to a small mountain village to see an
animal which is the only representative of its family in india. It is Himalayan
Newt. Though it is not uncommon in Darjeeling Himalayas, we choose Namthing
Lake as there is an established conservation site of Himalayan Newts, which
greatly increases our chance of seeing one.
When we reached Namthing Pokhri, it was raining. Rain may be
a disturbance for us humans but being an amphibian, it is a happy time for
Himalayan Newts. We searched the lake for it but with no success. In the next
day we went to the site again but this time we didn’t took chance and asked the
local people for help. This time after a few minutes of searching, yes, it was
there. To be truthful, in the first impression it looked very ugly.
Himalayan Newt, Tylototriton verrucosus, is an amphibian. It
also has a tail. So, it looks like a hybrid between a lizard and a toad. It has
a moist, warty skin, a laterally compressed tail for swimming and well developed
limbs for walking. Its total length is from 130-200mm of which almost half the
length is tail. It has a dark brown coloration which helps it to stay hidden in
the submerged vegetation during the day. But in the breeding time the males
sport a orange red belly color, which they use to attract females. It is a
nocturnal animal so it comes out of water in the night to feed on the ground. It
generally eats insects, earth worms, tadpoles etc. in India it is found in North Bengal, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Manipur and
Arunachal Pradesh.
Though it is a lower animal, it too has an elaborate
courtship ritual. First the male shows its orange red belly color to the
approaching female. Then the ritual begins. The male also calls like frogs and
toads but in a lower pitch. After the ritual male grabs the female by the
foreleg and stay mounted for an hour. Male then deposit a bag of sperm which
the female picks up with her anal opening. Then the female lays eggs in the
submerged vegetation of a stagnant pool.
One more interesting thing about this animal is its regeneration
power. We all have seen how geckos lose their tail and regenerate but Himalayan
Newt have gone further and can regenerate even a bitten limb.
Like all the other amphibians Himalayan Newt also hibernates
in the winter season to hide from the cold weather. It generally buries itself
into the soil 6” to several feet deep. But this cannot save it from the other
enemies like habitat destruction, use of pesticide or the fungal infection. So the
future does not look very bright for this
little creature which came to earth even before the dinosaurs.
