Abstract: In Bulgaria, data on the abundance of newt populations are extremely scarce, which greatly complicates their conservation. For most sites of the Natura 2000 network, such data are completely lacking. This paper presents data on the relative abundance of Buresch’s crested newt (Triturus ivanbureschi) in three Natura 2000 sites. The data were collected by sampling newts with funnel traps in April and May for two years (2022–2023). The results showed significant variation in newt abundance between ponds and among individual trapping sessions in the same ponds (recorded values ranged between 0.004 and 0.409 adult newts per trapping hour). The representativeness of the collected data, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the methods used are discussed.
Keywords: Balkan Peninsula, conservation, newt, population estimate
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Additional information
Received: 19 January 2026 · Accepted: 29 May 2026
Editor: Stanislav Abadjiev
Conflicts of interest:
No potential conflict of interest has been reported by the authors, reviewers, or subject editor.
Authors’ contributions (using CrediT ↗):
Borislav Naumov: conceptualisation, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, supervision, validation, visualisation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing; Simeon Lukanov: data curation, formal analysis, investigation, validation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing; Emiliya Vacheva: data curation, investigation, validation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing; Maria Naumova: data curation, investigation, writing—review and editing; Deyan Duhalov: data curation, investigation, writing—review and editing; Andrey Kolev: formal analysis, investigation.
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Cite as
Naumov B., Lukanov S., Vacheva E., Naumova M., Duhalov D., Kolev A. 2026 On the abundance of Triturus ivanbureschi Arntzen & Wielstra, 2013 (Amphibia: Salamandridae): a case study in three Natura 2000 sites in Bulgaria. Historia naturalis bulgarica 48: 179–188.