Red Eft Newt

Red Eft On the Move
Red Eft On the Move

I was recently walking through a dense hemlock forest in upstate New York where I came across some chewed-up mushrooms and several little orange critters crawling around them. I instantly thought a) salamanders? and b) they must be eating the mushrooms. Turns out I was right on the first point and only half-right on the second.

I had met what are generally referred to as “Red Efts”. They are the juvenile (eft) form of the Eastern or Orange Spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridscens, a type of salamander). It turns out they weren’t eating the mushrooms, they were eating the smaller animals that were eating the mushrooms.

Red Eft from Above
Red Eft from Above

These newts have a very interesting life cycle…

  1. They hatch with gills and start out living in water.
  2. Then they morph into these air-breathing orange juveniles that roam around on land for several years. Sometimes traveling far away from where they hatched.
  3. Finally they morph again into dull green adults who go back to live mostly in the water.

Their Latin name refers to their markings and color: Noto = mark, ophthalmus = eyes, viridscens = greenish (referring to the adult).