Een geval van regeneratie bij de kamsalamander

Newts and salamanders have a remarkable ability to regenerate limbs and digits, after they have been (partly) amputated. In this case story both a description and a photographic report is given of the recovery of the fore limbs in an adult female crested newt (Triturus cristatus). The specimen with two amputated fore limbs was caught by the author in May 2006 in a small pond in the province of Drenthe (The Netherlands). To record the regeneration process, permission to keep the specimen in captivity was obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. Regeneration from the shoulder down to the digits took 14 weeks. Although the regeneration of the limbs and digits seemed to be almost complete outwardly, radiographs showed that regeneration of the skeleton structure was only partial. Recordings were made until April 2007, the day the newt was released in its natural environment. It is imaginable that the recovery of the skeleton was in a further stage than visible in the radiographs, as radiographs may not show regenerated bones that have not been ossificated yet. Remarkably the newt appeared hardly to be hampered by its lack of fore legs; locomotion during the recovery process was quite vivid. Possible causes of the amputation are mentioned –as described in literature- and also a hypothesis is formulated that states that the newt might have been mutilated during hibernation by a passing predator, e.g. a wood mouse (Apodemus silvaticus) or any other mouse or rat species.