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The first co-ordinated, London-wide garden pond and amphibian
survey was conducted in 1984 by Tom Langton, who later went on
to form Froglife. This contributed to the lead up to further
work for amphibians in the Capital - in 1994 the former London
Amphibian and Reptile Group, now the London Essex and
Hertfordshire Amphibian and Reptile Trust (LEHART), conducted the first
targeted survey of great crested newts in the Greater London
area. A summary of their results was published in the London
Naturalist in 1996.
Follow up surveys for GCN were carried out in 1997 and a
resurvey of all LEHARTs known GCN ponds was completed between
2007 and 2010. Survey work has also been conducted by other
Amphibian and Reptile Groups (ARGs) in different boroughs of
London where they are covered by old county boundaries, such as
Essex ARG, Surry ARG and Kent ARG. The combination of all this
work has lead to increases in the knowledge of the distribution
if GCN in the Capital, however the data itself is patchy in that
different organisations hold different records for sites, with
some being well known and others falling through the gaps.
The most established records for GCN in the capital reside with
LEHART, and their work has lead to the subsequent management of
several dozen GCN ponds in the Greater London Area.
In 2009 Froglife secured funding from the SITA Trust to carry
out the GCN Revisited project. Froglife intends to survey ponds
throughout all London’s boroughs, revisiting many of the ponds
surveyed in 1984 as well as investigating other historic and
anecdotal records of GCN in London. This will help improve the
records at GiGL (Greenspace information Services for Greater
London) which is the central biological records centre for
London, partnered with 26 of the 32 London Boroughs and linked
in with their planning departments.
Project aims
Volunteering and events
Project Officer Sivi Sivanesan:
07530 103238 or
sivi.sivanesan@froglife.org
LEHART
ARG UK
GiGL
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