Alpine Newts established in NZ

[Byrd]

Something brought to my attention yesterday, which seems to have escaped notice (certainly by me!). Alpine newts have been released in the Waikato and established a wild population, first noticed in 2013. The species is not kept anywhere legally in NZ and hence the population is/was certainly the result of hobbyists smuggling the species in and releasing individuals.

Journal paper here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1 ... 16.1216455

Newspaper article (from 2014) here, saying 300 had been captured at Waihi: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty ... d=11252471

[Jim_j]

Thanks for posting Byrd - I had never heard of this either.
Yet another potential pest - will people never earn!

cheers
Jim