The terrestrial summer habitat of radio-tracked great crested newts (Triturus cristatus) and marbled newts (T-marmoratus)

Thirty great crested newts (Triturus cristatus) and 25 marbled newts (T. ma rmoratus) were radio tracked for up to 31 days after leaving breeding ponds in western France. Around the pond where most newts were radio-tracked, 95 % of all summer refuges fell within a radius from the pond of 63.0 m for T. cristatus and 59.5 m for T. marmoratus. The most frequently used habitats were directly adjacent to the pond shoreline. For the other two ponds, all summer refuges fell within radii of between 26.2 m and 32.3 m from the pond s respectively. No significant differences among species or ponds were obse rved in the mean distance that newts moved away from the breeding site. Fiv e radio-tracked T. cristatus and two radio-tracked T. marmoratus that were moved back into their ponds migrated during the following night in almost i dentical directions to their initial emigrations, but did not return to the original refuges. In eight cases, several (up to ten) untracked newts were found in the refuges of radio-tracked individuals.