The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is investigating why a large number of rough-skinned newts are dying without clear causes of death.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
WDFW research scientist Dr. Max Lambert first noticed the problem while hiking at a remote lake in 2021, and since then has spoken with researchers in California noticing similar effects there. Lambert says he saw an unusual number of dead newts without clear evidence of reasons for their deaths. Since then, he and his colleagues have been hiking to the lake, searching for dead and live newts and taking samples to test for pathogens, bacteria and other observable factors.
The lake is located in a relatively low-traffic area of the Olympic National Forest. At the end of August when KING 5 hiked in with WDFW, it had receded significantly, leaving some of the dead newts lying in thick mud. Lambert says there are obviously normal causes of death for newts, including being eaten by predators, but the number of dead newts there that had not decayed- meaning they had died fairly recently -- was unusual. Because they are emaciated, it may seem like there was a lack of food available -- but substantial dragonflies and damselfly were available in the water as a food source.
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