BEND, Ore. — The Oregon Zoo is working with Crater Lake National Park and the High Desert Museum to save the rare Mazama newt, a salamander found only in Crater Lake, from extinction by beginning the first-ever breeding effort in human care.

Here is the full announcement from the Oregon Zoo:

CRATER LAKE, Ore. — The Oregon Zoo has teamed up with the National Park Service and High Desert Museum to bring 19 Mazama newts to the zoo in an attempt to save the species from extinction. Earlier this month, conservation staff traveled to Crater Lake to collect the small amphibians, which are now living behind the scenes in the zoo’s conservation lab. 

“The newts are settling in well, which is just what we’d hoped for,” said Julia Low, who oversees the zoo’s newt conservation program. “This is only the second time this species has been in human care, and this will be the first-ever breeding effort, so we’re eager to learn everything we can.”

The Mazama newt is a salamander found only in Crater Lake, notable for the mottled coloring on its belly. While it was historically a top aquatic predator in the lake, it’s now threatened by invasive signal crayfish that are taking over its lakeshore habitat. 

In 2008, Mazama newts were found at half of survey sites around Crater Lake, but in 2025 they were spotted at only two sites — just 5% of the total survey area. Crayfish, on the other hand, were found at every site this year.

“If we don’t act now, the Mazama newt could disappear,” said David Hering, an aquatic ecologist at Crater Lake National Park. “We need to keep a population of these newts safe in human care while we work on a long-term solution to the invasive crayfish problem, and that’s where the Oregon Zoo comes in.”

In mid-August, the Oregon Zoo and National Park Service co-hosted a workshop at Crater Lake to chart an emergency action plan for the Mazama newt. Over three days, scientists and experts from the University of Washington, Oregon State University, University of Illinois, San Antonio Zoo, the Klamath Tribes, the High Desert Museum, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Zoo and Crater Lake National Park worked on new strategies to eradicate crayfish and create a safeguard population of newts. Many of these actions are focused on the next two years, just in time to give the species a fighting chance. 

As a critical first step in 2024, the zoo supported efforts to bring a group of Mazama newts from Crater Lake to the High Desert Museum, where they’ve been living for the past year. 

“It’s a unique challenge to learn how to care for these newts, and we’re proud to be part of the conservation effort,” said Jon Nelson, the museum’s curator of wildlife. “We’re working closely with animal care staff at the Oregon Zoo to share everything we’ve learned.”

The zoo’s Mazama newt lab is equipped to care for the newts at every stage of life. Care staff worked to replicate Crater Lake’s unique temperature and water quality, and the 19 newts at the zoo are being closely monitored. If all goes according to plan, their offspring will eventually be released back into the lake.

“We know how important this work is, and we’re up to the challenge,” Low said. “With more newts disappearing every year, now is the time to act to save this species.” 

This is the first time Mazama newts will live at the zoo’s conservation lab, but the Oregon Zoo has a history of bringing native species back from the brink. For more than 25 years, the zoo has spearheaded conservation triumphs with California condors, butterflies, northwestern pond turtles, northern leopard frogs and more.

The Mazama newt has been included as a ‘state sensitive’ species in Oregon’s revised State Wildlife Action Plan and has been petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act. The zoo’s Mazama newt recovery efforts are conducted in partnership with the National Park Service and the High Desert Museum.

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