Great Crested Newt Surveys
Great Crested Newts (Triturus cristatus) are protected under The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended). Normally Great Crested Newts (GCN) need to be considered whenever works will impact a pond, or are carried out within 500 metres of a pond. There are three main processes to surveying for GCN:
Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) – an HSI is a way of assessing a pond for its suitability to support the species, and is normally carried out as part of a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal. An HSI can be done at any time of year, and quite often is all that is required. However, if the result of the HSI indicates that it may contain GCN then further surveys will be required.
eDNA – an environmental DNA test can be carried out on water samples taken from the pond. This cannot be used to rule out GCN but is a quick and cheap way of establishing presence or likely absence of the species. This can only be used between 15th April and 30th June.
Presence/Absence Surveys – presence/absence surveys can be carried out between March and June and can involve several different methods which include bottle trapping, torchlight searches and egg searches. Four surveys should be done of each pond where required, with two additional surveys if GCN are found.
If a GCN population is to be impacted by proposed works then appropriate mitigation will be required, which may involve fencing off your site and capturing any GCN present, or leaving buffer zones and foraging habitat. A licence may also be required in some cases.
Please contact us to find out more or to get a free quotation and we will be happy to assist you.