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Great Crested Newts

Commonly encountered in many development projects in the North West due to the density of waterbodies associated with our glacial, industrial, and agricultural past.  Great crested newts are protected under several major pieces of Uk and European legislation, making it is an offence to kill, capture, or disturb them, or to damage or destroy their breeding ponds or terrestrial habitat.

Like all amphibians, the annual life cycle of a great crested newt is phased between hibernation during the winter months, awakening to return ideally to the pond of their birth to breed in spring and early summer and migrating back overland for considerable distances for the rest of summer and autumn for foraging and shelter opportunities.  For that reason it is recommended that any suitable waterbodies within 500m of a site boundary should be surveyed to establish if newts may be present. Opportuntiies for survey  works to establish species presence are seasonally restricted to mid-March - mid-June, when adults are in their breeding ponds.

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