Mesotriton alpestris. The alpine newt. I can’t forget how excited I was as a kid when I discovered a “new” species of animal in a somewhat isolated source of a local stream. Climbing through bushes downhill was also part of the fun. Tiny little creatures. Not a tadpole, as I was informed by a family friend who was a biology teacher. A tadpole never has fully developed four legs at the same time as a tail. And it was true. It was a completely new species I had never heard people talk about. I doubted they even knew it existed. Soon, I got myself an aquarium fishing net and caught a couple of these juveniles for my school biology class aquarium. And, by sheer luck, I managed to catch an adult too! What a joy! I was devouring books, trying to find as much information about these creatures as I could.

The stream source was soon after kind of devastated, as it was turned into the water source for a new pasture. I kind of forgot about it until I recently noticed the creatures in another local stream. With a bit of improvisation and crawling, I took an “underwater” photo of them. No fish nets this time. A photo sufficed.