Italian crested newt
When newts are inactive or in oxygen-rich environments, respiration can be done through their skin which accounts for 74% of the cutaneous respiration. However, oxygen-poor environments, such as stagnant ponds, pose a threat to the survival of larval newts. This is because oxygen molecules do not readily dissolve in water, and as "T. carnifex" is an immobile animal, extracting oxygen from water is difficult. Newts consequently have external gills at birth that persist until metamorphosis, which assists survival in low-oxygen conditions.
Newt
Although some species, such as the rough-skinned newt ("Taricha granulosa") in North America or the smooth newt ("Lissotriton vulgaris") in Europe, are still relatively common, populations of newts throughout their distribution range suffer from habitat loss, fragmentation, and pollution. This affects especially the aquatic breeding sites they depend on, but also their land habitats. Several species, such as the Edough ribbed newt ("Pleurodeles poireti"), Kaiser's spotted newt ("Neurergus kaiseri"), or the Montseny brook newt ("Calotriton arnoldi") are considerered threatened by the IUCN, and the Yunnan lake newt is a tragic example of a newt species that has gone extinct recently.