Ed Dolphin writes for the Sid Valley Biodiversity Group.

Many ponds across the valley will have baby newts with their frill of gills at this time of year.

Newts are mysterious creatures that lead a double life, they start life in ponds but people are surprised when they find them around the garden. People are particularly surprised if they turn up in a newly installed pond and wonder where they came from.

Newts are amphibians, which translates literally as double life. They start life in in ponds and lakes but leave and travel up to 500m away to spend most of their life as land creatures. Their skin is permeable and so they stay in damp places such as long grass and under logs during the day. At night they come out to hunt for small insects, worms, snails and slugs.

The adults return to water in spring to breed because their eggs do not have a shell and would dry out on land, this is how they appear in new ponds. During the mating season, male newts enlarge the crest along the back and the tail and their under belly colour brightens. They will raise the crest and swim alongside a female as part of an elaborate courtship display. The female will lay hundreds of eggs, using her hind legs to wrap them one by one in the folds of water plant leaves.

The eggs take about four weeks to develop and hatch. Just like frogs and toads, newts hatch as tadpoles. Unlike frogs and toads, their front legs develop before the hind legs. They grow a pair of feathery gills just behind the head but these disappear by the end of summer and the young newts will develop simple lungs so they can breathe air when they finally leave the water.

The lungs are simple and adult newts can absorb some oxygen through their skin if it is damp. If the adults are at rest in the pond they can absorb enough oxygen from the water through their skin but, if they are active, they have to rise to the surface to gulp air.

Newt tadpoles are voracious hunters and frog tadpoles are one of their favourite foods. The young newts or efts may leave the pond at the end of the summer but some over-winter and leave in the spring. It will be up to four years before they become fully mature and return to the water to start breeding. They can live for quite a long time for such a small creature, there are reports of a Great-crested Newt living to 17 but I cannot find reliable confirmation of the story.

There are three native newt species that you might find in Devon. The Smooth Newt is the most common. Pale green-grey and about 10cm long, the females are well camouflaged, the males are slightly darker with spots and when you turn them over it reveals a bright orange belly with dark spots. The spots extend up under the chin. The less common and slightly smaller Palmate Newt is similar but the spots do not extend under the chin.

The Great-crested newt is larger at up to 17cm. Its skin above is almost black and covered in many bumpy warts. The under belly is also bright orange with dark spots but the area under the chin is dark.

All three newt species are in decline because of habitat loss and they have some protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, it is an offence to cause them harm or suffering, but Great-crested Newts have special protection. Their populations are under more serious threats and it is an offence to disturb them or damage their habitat, something that has thwarted building development in the past.

If you want to help our newt population then please find space for a pond in your garden. If you cannot do that then you can still help by leaving a corner of the garden with long grass and piles of small logs, somewhere for the adults to live and hunt.