Research upon the feeding of the species Triturus vulgaris (Amphibia) from Poiana Tasad (Bihor County, Romania)

Alfred s. Cicort-Lucaciu, Horia V. Bogdan, Annamaria Toth,

Mihaela Benzar, Lavinia Balaj, Alina M. Vidican

KEY WORDS: Triturus vulgaris, trophic spectrum

Abstract

                In the stomach contents of the common newts from Poiana Tasad we identified vegetal remains, spawn, shaded amphibian skin and also 15 prey taxa. The most important preys for the newts are the Diptera Nematocera larvae, Coleopterans, Ostracodae and Cladocera. The consumption of these small sized preys, which present a gregarious way of life, indicates the fact that Triturus vulgaris uses an active foraging type of strategy for acquiring food. This is probably a consequence of the small size of the newt itself, which doesn’t allow them to hunt any other kind of preys.