A Note about Newts

On By sraanerud

On a recent backpacking trip in Big Sur during their spring migration, I counted over 20 California newts casually making their way to streams for breeding.

The first time I encountered a rough-skinned newt, I scooped the little guy up without a second thought. Used to lizards that flee at the hint of danger, I was amazed by the small amphibian’s cavalier attitude: he couldn’t care less, it seemed, to have been transferred from the trail upon which he was strolling onto the palm of this comparatively massive warm-blooded potential predator; my friend and I dubbed him “Newton,” and snapped a couple pictures before returning him to earth. I texted my dad a picture, as I do upon most nature-related discoveries. Expecting an enthusiastic one-word response the next day, I was caught off guard to receive a call from him within minutes of the text. 

“Did you pick up that newt?” He asked with underlying urgency.

I replied that of course I had, that this should be obvious as the photo depicted the newt in my hand. 

His response was less amused than I had anticipated. “Are you able to wash your hands? Don’t touch your face or any food until you can wash your hands.” 

As he told me this, my friend, who had also handled the newt, complained that his finger was tingling a little. My stomach lunged. 

In short, we were fine. We washed and sanitized our hands upon returning from the hike and within a couple hours the irritation to my friend’s finger had dissipated. Still, I was disturbed by how casually we had handled what was in fact one of most dangerous animals in the country. 

Perhaps “dangerous” is not the best term. The genus Taricha, which is composed of four species of newts (rough-skinned newts, California newts, Sierra newts, and red-bellied newts) have only one confirmed human kill to their name, but still, considering we’re talking about a five-inch-long newt taking down a 29-year-old adult man (spoiler, the newt didn’t live to tell the tale), these  seemingly-innocuous amphibians aren’t to be taken lightly. 

 Endemic to the west coast of the United States and Canada, Taricha members are relatively non-descript: they range between about three and seven inches in length, have brown, bumpy skin (though the skin of males often becomes smoother come mating season), and bright orangey-yellow bellies that they flash if feeling threatened . . . they also all possess the biotoxin, tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin 1,200 times more toxic than cyanide. 

Most commonly associated with pufferfish and the blue-ring octopus, tetrodotoxin, when consumed in large-enough quantities, can result in numbness, paralysis, and asphyxiation. Though rough-skinned newts generally possess the highest levels of tetrodotoxin, and levels can fluctuate within species regionally, it is agreed that all Taricha members sport high enough amounts to cause significant damage.

How these newts came to carry this toxin, which is typically attributed to aquatic bacteria, remains unclear, though a 2020 study identified several types of tetrodotoxin-producing bacteria living on the bumpy skin of these newts, indicating that they are not able to produce the toxin themselves. It is clear that, because of this epidermal weapon, these newts have few natural predators (garter-snakes being a unique exception) and thus tend to mosey along exposed trails without concern (on a recent backpacking trip in Big Sur during their spring migration, I counted over 20 California newts casually making their way to streams for breeding; not one made any effort to get out of my way). 

This sluggishness, combined with their innocuous appearance proved lethal—for both newt and human—in 1979 when a 29-year-old man, during a night of drunken antics, swallowed a rough-skinned newt on a dare. Within 24 excruciating hours, the man had died by asphyxiation.  

Fortunately, aside from some potential skin irritation, not much damage can come from handling Taricha, so long as you don’t, you know, eat it or lick your fingers. Still, I can’t help but feel a little duped: for as long as I can remember, I—a Pacific Northwesterner—knew to be weary of southern threats such as gila monsters (there is no confirmed report of this magnificently sluggish lizard ever killing anyone) and tarantulas (again, no reported kills), but no one ever mentioned the toxic charmer living in my own backyard.  

Works Cited

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