Crater Lake’s Mazama newts are in trouble. Their numbers have been decimated by predation from signal crayfish introduced to the lake by park managers in the early 1900s, but scientists from all over the country, including the Oregon Zoo, are pulling out all the stops to save them. Earlier this year, scientists collected a number of newts from Crater Lake to try to begin a captive breeding program at the zoo. But there’s a big learning curve, because scientists don’t actually know much about the

NEWT PARTY! California newts stay on land for most of the year, but during the wet season, adults migrate to ponds to breed. Females lay their eggs underwater in these ponds, which will hatch after several weeks. The aquatic larvae transform into terrestrial newts over several months and begin to live on land between late summer and early fall. Once newts leave their ponds, they won’t return to the water until breeding season. Fun fact: California newts have a strong homing instinct and typicall