I Wanna Hold Your Hand!

I came across this red eft - which is the terrestrial phase of the eastern spotted newt, Notophthalmus viridescens - on walkabout on the gravel road into the Scotia Barrens parking lot. It was such a bright orange that it was practically GLOWING. I didn't want it to get squashed, so I picked it up gently and moved it to its own private mushroom, with a swimming pool!

I can't even TELL you how much I love these little critters! If I had a spirit animal, I think it would be a red eft. I was so excited when I saw it on that gravel road. I try not to touch them unless they need help. The newt was only in my hand for something less than one minute; I swear, I didn't fondle it at all! Newts do not like being pawed at!

When I saw it there, I went: AHA!!! THAT NEWT NEEDS HELP OFF THIS ROAD! And so I had a reason to touch it, hip hip HOORAY! I thought I would post a picture of the happy newt sitting on its mushroom, but my poor heart can't take this photo of the lovely newt using ITS little hands, or paws, or feet, or whatever we want to call them, to HOLD ONTO MY FINGERS. I am slain by the cuteness!

Tips for newt wrangling:
1. Are your hands relatively clean? If you have anything remotely toxic on your hands, it's an ix-nay on the ewt-nay. No newt handling with dirty paws!
2. Approach the newt slowly.
3. Pick it up gently, by putting one hand under it and placing the newt ONTO that hand with the other.
4. Transport it not very high off the ground in case it should LEAP!
5. Watch out for squiggly behavior. It's easy to lose a newt during transport.
6. Place the newt gently down onto a friendly surface. DO NOT DROP THE NEWT AT THIS CRITICAL JUNCTURE.
7. A safe newt is a happy newt. Now stop and admire your handiwork. :-)
8. Wash your hands after handling any wild creature.

My soundtrack song is the one you knew it would be: the Beatles with I Wanna Hold Your Hand! Now, I've got a second song too, which I had just heard for the first time on this morning and decided I just HAD to have. And so before I even left the house, I had bought it on Amazon and loaded it onto my tunes box. Isn't the modern world AMAZING!? Anyway, here's the bonus track: Moby, feat. Mindy Jones, with a really lovely and gentle cover of David Bowie's song, Heroes.

More info: learn more about eastern newts here!