ferreron
New member
- Joined
- May 7, 2007
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 3
- Points
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- Country
- Spain
- Display Name
- Carlos
Although it wasn't my intention to post this, the strong pressure from *expletive* Azhael (as always) has forced me to do it, so excuse the boring post.
The fellow spanish members may already recognize this from another forum, hehehe.
This past summer I decided to build 2 outdoor enclosures. One of them was destined for a group of Ommatotriton ophryticus, since I had already experienced that the conditions in my garden worked well for them.
As some of you may remember from other posts, I live in what Azhael considers a desert, which looks like this in mid summer, at least the bit of the garden that is not tidy.
The idea was to make two parts of 2x1 internal surface metres each, keeping them underground so as to benefit from the tamponing effect against the summer temperatures. I must say that this wouldn't have been possible without my father as in the end he did most of the work.
Finally, each part is divided in two, a land area and the aquatic counterpart, each with 60cm of depth and sticking about 50cm over the ground surface.
To prevent scapees I used large bricks, forming a broad and porose barrier in the shape of an L which the newts won't be able to climb by sticking to the surface.
The lid you can see in the pictures is just to prevent birds and cats from entering the installation.
The land area, although it provides natural drainage, I filled initially with large rocks to facilitate the process and then filled with the same natural soil in the area.
I included an hibernaculum and protected it from rain or mud with a pond lining cloth as you can see in the pictures. The access to the refuge is through an ascending corrugated tube which allows for easy grasp for the animals. The opening of the tube is situated in an elevation, and facing a part which would recive little water anyway, making it difficult for water or mud to get in.
The aquatic area, of approximately 600 litres of capacity, has a layer of white glue mortar, plus another two layers of impermeable mortar apt for drinking water deposits.
A quarter of the most superfitial part of the terrestrial area is mixed with worm compost and covered with leaf-litter. There are various roof tiles as well (and rocks which I added after the pictures were made), spread around, so there are plenty of hiding possibilities with variying degrees of humidity.
The scarcety of plant life is due to, as I already mentioned, the fact that for these newts, I had great results keeping them in a dry environment (and Azhael says: because you live in the desert).
The fellow spanish members may already recognize this from another forum, hehehe.
This past summer I decided to build 2 outdoor enclosures. One of them was destined for a group of Ommatotriton ophryticus, since I had already experienced that the conditions in my garden worked well for them.
As some of you may remember from other posts, I live in what Azhael considers a desert, which looks like this in mid summer, at least the bit of the garden that is not tidy.
The idea was to make two parts of 2x1 internal surface metres each, keeping them underground so as to benefit from the tamponing effect against the summer temperatures. I must say that this wouldn't have been possible without my father as in the end he did most of the work.
Finally, each part is divided in two, a land area and the aquatic counterpart, each with 60cm of depth and sticking about 50cm over the ground surface.
To prevent scapees I used large bricks, forming a broad and porose barrier in the shape of an L which the newts won't be able to climb by sticking to the surface.
The lid you can see in the pictures is just to prevent birds and cats from entering the installation.
The land area, although it provides natural drainage, I filled initially with large rocks to facilitate the process and then filled with the same natural soil in the area.
I included an hibernaculum and protected it from rain or mud with a pond lining cloth as you can see in the pictures. The access to the refuge is through an ascending corrugated tube which allows for easy grasp for the animals. The opening of the tube is situated in an elevation, and facing a part which would recive little water anyway, making it difficult for water or mud to get in.
The aquatic area, of approximately 600 litres of capacity, has a layer of white glue mortar, plus another two layers of impermeable mortar apt for drinking water deposits.
A quarter of the most superfitial part of the terrestrial area is mixed with worm compost and covered with leaf-litter. There are various roof tiles as well (and rocks which I added after the pictures were made), spread around, so there are plenty of hiding possibilities with variying degrees of humidity.
The scarcety of plant life is due to, as I already mentioned, the fact that for these newts, I had great results keeping them in a dry environment (and Azhael says: because you live in the desert).