Rare newt bred outside Catalonia for the first time at UK zoo

An incredibly rare newt has been bred for the first time outside Catalonia in a UK zoo.

Chester Zoo has successfully hatched twelve Montseny newts, which is one of the most endangered species in Europe.

The newts are also the only vertebrate only found in Catalonia.

Together with the Karpathos frog (Pelophylax cerigensis), a frog endemic to the Greek island of Karpathos, the newts are one of the two most threatened amphibians in the continent.

It is thought fewer than 1,500 of the newts, which only grow to around 11cm long, remain in the wild.

Chester Zoo, as part of a conservation programme, is hatching these small amphibians and reintroducing them to the wild.

It has also created a special purpose-built breeding facility for 12 pairs of newts, based away from all other amphibians housed at the zoo in order to ensure their bio-security.

The Montseny newts are critically endangered, so the UK zoo has teamed with Catalonian scientists to breed hatchlings and reintroduce them to the Montseny mountain range in north-eastern Catalonia to help boost numbers.

These mountains, approximately 100km north of Barcelona, are the only place where the endangered animals live in the wild.

Francesc Carbonell Buira, Biologist for the Government of Catalonia, said:“This is a species that had gone unnoticed by scientists until the late 1980s.

“A population disappeared late last century and, although some are currently stable, some are in a very unfavourable state of conservation. That’s why several administrations have come together to improve their conservation status – both through work in the wild and through a breeding programme.

“So far, over the 10 years it has been up-and- running, more than 2000 Montseny newts have been raised and four new populations created. Now Chester Zoo is on board, given its enormous experience in breeding threatened amphibian species, we hope the programme will go from strength- to-strength and that we can create a much brighter outlook for these wonderful animals.”