Fauna of Scotland
Only six amphibians and four land reptiles are native to Scotland. The amphibians include three species of newt: the great crested, of which fewer than 1,000 individuals survive; the smooth, and the palmate. The other amphibians are the common toad, the natterjack toad, found in only four locations in the south-west, and the common frog. A single alien amphibian is known in Scotland, the Alpine newt, a recent escapee confined to the Edinburgh area.
Sex and sexuality in speculative fiction
"War with the Newts", a 1936 satirical science fiction novel by Czech author Karel Čapek, concerns the discovery in the Pacific of a sea-dwelling race, an intelligent breed of newts - who are initially enslaved and exploited by humans and later rebel and go war against them. The book includes a detailed appendix entitled 'The Sex Life of the Newts', which examines the Newts' sexuality and reproductive processes in a pastiche of academese. This is one of the first attempts to speculate on what form sex might have among non-human intelligent beings.