My Da just found this fella on his kitchen counter hanging out next to his cup of tea. I thought it might be a common lizard but a quick google shows them to be a decent bit chunkier than this guy. Any herpetologists around have any idea who our guest is? Located near Castlepollard in Westmeath if that helps.

by pdoxney

35 comments

  3. [According to biodiversityireland.ie](https://biodiversityireland.ie/amphibians-reptiles/), there are five reptiles and amphibians native to Ireland:

    * Common Frog

    * Natterjack Toad

    * Smooth Newt

    * Viviparous Lizard

    * Leatherback Turtle

    And one non-native:

    * Slow Worm

    Bear in mind that just because the one you have doesn’t look like the pictures on google, doesn’t mean it isn’t. Many species have sexual dimorphism (males and females look different), and juveniles can look different from adults, plus maybe the one you have is on the verge of starvation (which would explain why it was desperate enough to venture inside a house).

    Don’t rule anything out too early. This could even hypothetically be an escaped pet, which could be anything. However if we’re going off the balance of probability, my guess would be Smooth Newt. Of course, I’m no herpetologist.

  4. Give him some rich tea before sending him on his way. He looks awful skinny!

  9. They’re like kangaroos, but they’re reptiles they is.

  11. Common lizard I think. I love coming into contact with them they’re so cute!

  16. Definitely looked starved! I do t think there is much you could do I believe it is at the death door 😕 hard to say if it is a lizard or a newt as I don’t see a scale nor the quality of picture allows to see details. If the animal have scales then it is lizard. Newts have smooth skin.

  19. Get him a few bugs and put him outside near rocks and leaves. He will find his way.

  20. This is a smooth newt. It may be a male as it’s darker but hard to tell without looking at his stomach. If it has stripes/dots down it, it’s a male, if single colour it is a female. They hibernate around now, maybe you have a pond or water source nearby find him somewhere warm like a pile of leaves where he won’t be bothered by birds 🙂

  26. Looks like a newt to me but I’ve only ever seen 2 in my life, both times in or around my local village of Newtownforbes. I like to joke that the name of the village comes from the fact that there was once a large population of Newts, so they called it “Newt Town”. No one ever believes me, but I get a laugh out of it

  27. What makes you say she is a witch?

    She turned me into a newt.

    A newt?

    I got better.

  31. I’ve only ever (rarely) seen these sunning themselves on rocks up on hills, amazingly lucky to see one lower down.

  34. I heard on a podcast that there’s also a new invasive newt that has a red belly called the Alpine Newt. Maybe send the pic to the biodiversity data centre or national history museum for ID?

  35. That, my friend, is a newt.
    Not sure if it’s smooth one like one person above mentioned, but I’ve seen quite a few of them around mainland Europe and can certainly say it’s one of them.
    Nice catch in Ireland, haven’t seen any here so far.
    They’re quite useful for catching insects, but I’d say you’d better bring him outside, it can get crushed easily indoor by someone in your household.

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