Emperor newt
| Emperor newt | |
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| Tylototriton shanjing | |
The emperor newt (Tylototriton shanjing) is a highly toxic newt. It lives in southeast Asia. They live in pools and slow-moving streams in subtropical forests.[1]They mostly are awake during night and sleep during the day. The emperor newt usually eats small insects. These include crickets and worms.
It is also called the mandarin newt or mandarin salamander. They can grow up to 8 inches (20 cm) long. It has a ridged orange head. A single orange ridge runs along its back. This ridge is lined with two parallel rows of orange bumps on a black background. The tail and legs are entirely orange. There are different shades of orange.[2]
When the newt is grabbed, the tips of the ribs will squeeze out poison. Emperor newts have enough toxin to kill about 7,500 mice.[3][4]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ tylototriton.org [1] Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 2/7/07
- ↑ torontozoo.com [2] Archived 2006-11-11 at the Wayback Machine accessed 9/18/06
- ↑ detroitzoo.com [3] accessed 9/18/06
- ↑ Caudata.org [4] Archived 2013-05-31 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 1/10/07