Newts Fight

Now the same actions at half of the speed.

A female newt is hunting something totally unaware of a male newt sneaking behind on her .

Another male intercepts the first male as soon as the first male makes a move.

The female finally realized that she was under attack and...ouch.

Now back to a normal speed.

That is a very impressive attack speed!

Normally, Red-spotted (Eastern) newts move graciously and often stay motionlessly.

Seeing my newts in speedy action for the first time was a great surprise for me.

Here you can see two male newts in...hmm... I would call it a deathlock pro wrestling position.

The male newt on the top is holding the other male newt in a choking lock.

The newt on the bottom appears to be totally immobilized.

Interestingly,  Red-spotted male newts hold females using the same lock during mating.

There is only one difference in the hold that I can name.

The male newt would use his tail to fan around a female in a very delicate manner during mating. 

Well, newts take a long time mating and it is something I have to show in a separate video.

The female newt is watching the males compete for her and looking for the game she missed because of them.

The male on the bottom is already fully immobilized - as in amplexus.

The winner seems to be getting destructed by some snack crawling nearby.

Yep, he dropped his opponent to get the snack before the female.

The other male is out - as dead.

The female takes a look at him while searching for the snack.

And the winner gets the snack too!

SheShy, it's a name I call the female newt, smells her snack as it disappears in the winner's mouth.

And the winner dashed away from SheShy to save the snack he stole!

Red-spotted newts have very complicated relationships I've been enjoying observing.

They are truly fascinating pets to keep.

The other male finally comes alive and moves away.

He lost this fight, but it is not the end of the mating game newts play.

Have fun and happy newts :)