Opis:
Follow me to my pond where I spent hours watching and videoing male and female Red-spotted Newts interacting and mating. In this video I show you how to identify males by their long heavily keeled tail, their enlarged thick rear legs, and their enlarged red cloaca. Females have not so long or keeled tail, smaller rear legs, and not so enlarged cloaca. I always define terms i use in the video. I describe mating rituals including wiggling, tail wagging, pheromone release and amplexus. Females select males. Other males my try to interfere with amplexus and cause the competing male to release. Males will eventually release a packet of sperm on the pond bottom which the female will pick-up and place in her cloaca. Males not in amplexus my try to place their sperm packets in front of the female. Fertilization in amphibians including toads is discussed.