Generally common but unevenly occurring species. Two yellow, white or orange spots, which sometimes converge, are usually located on the occipital surface. In summer, they more often stay on the shores of water bodies, where they hunt their main food objects – frogs, in spring and autumn they roam in a wider area. Often staying close to human habitation, when taken in hands they discharge the secretion of the anal gland with an unpleasant odour, some individuals pretend to be dead at the moment of danger; not poisonous, usually do not bite.