Archives for October 2016

Your Croaks: Toads in My Garden

October 24, 2016 by editor

In light of Froglife’s recently published paper, Mary from Kent, wrote in to us telling us about the toads in her wildlife-friendly garden

Toads in my garden

(“Build it and they will come”)

In 2007 I was in the happy position of starting a brand new garden. I love gardening, and am a plantaholic, but without wildlife the garden is just an empty stage set, so it has to be wildlife friendly. The first feature to be constructed was a pond. It’s in full sun right outside my sitting-room window, about 5m square, and almost 1m deep in the middle. There’s a shallow shelf all round the edge, and a cobble beach at one corner to provide easy access for birds and animals coming to drink or bathe. I planted up the pond: various irises and other marginals on the shelves, a couple of water lilies in the deep water, and a few different oxygenators. I haven’t installed a pump (idleness), and there are (deliberately) no fish!

summer-2015-021 — *Figure 1: Mary’s idyllic wildlife garden, with a large variety of plants in and around her pond*

As soon as there was water in the pond, wild creatures began to occupy it. The first were dragonflies and other flying insects, then I started to see newts, and the very first spring there were frogs and frogspawn. In subsequent years there would be a single strand of toadspawn. Many birds began to visit too, some just for a drink or a dip, but others to find food in or around the water.

spawn-spring-2015-003 — *Figure 2: A little nugget of vegetation smothered in frogspawn!*

The plants grow very vigorously and I thin them out occasionally, and in the autumn I scoop out dead leaves if they start to accumulate, but otherwise the pond is left to its own devices. The water has stayed very clear, the wildlife population has grown steadily, and pond dipping is a great favourite with my grandchildren.

spawn-spring-2015-010 — *Figure 3: A male smooth newt at the bottom of Mary’s pond, perfect for her grandchildren to pond dip in!*

Elsewhere in the garden I made a low retaining wall out of gabions (steel mesh cages) filled with flints collected from the garden, in the hope that these loose stone walls would be of use to hibernating amphibians. On each side of the pond there are densely planted borders, so that there is plenty of cover for any creature climbing out of the water. Behind the formal garden is an area of long grass, cut once or twice a year, and wild hedges and heaps of logs and stones. I occasionally use organic slug pellets, when there is no other way to get vegetable seedlings to survive, and then very sparingly, but I don’t use any other chemicals.

more-toad-spawn-005 — *Figure 4: A pair of toads next to a large quantity of toadspawn*

Which, if any, of these measures are critical I don’t know, but frog and newt numbers increased steadily, with an occasional sighting of a toad. Then in spring 2015 there were suddenly hundreds of toads. A torch was essential for any trip to the garden after dark so you could check each step before you put a foot to the ground. The water was heaving with toads, and in due course every plant stem and every pot had great braids of toadspawn wrapped round it. Then after a couple of weeks the toads vanished, literally overnight. Sometimes I’d see one in a damp spot around some pots, or in a compost heap, or in the long grass, or even occasionally up in the wood behind the garden, but just the odd one or two, never in quantity. Until this spring! The toads returned en masse again to spawn.

spawn-spring-2015-001 — *Figure 5: Many toads crowded round one plant! How many can you spot in there?*

I cannot tell you how much pleasure my wildlife garden brings. My approach is to see a patch of land as one ecosystem, with many different life forms which have evolved together over millennia. I try to support this ecosystem from the ground up, providing food, water and shelter. I try to follow available advice on wildlife gardening, and nature’s example, and there’s certainly a lot of trial and error. Moments of success – as with the toads – are wonderful!

Inspired by Nature: Least Concern

October 24, 2016 by editor

^{Inspired by Nature is a themed Croak to entertain you with art and creative writing based on nature and the outdoors. We hope it will stimulate you to get creative and produce something yourself. If you do and would like to share them with us, please post them on our Facebook page, Twitter account, or email us at info@froglife.org}

^{This months feature has been written by Rebecca Neal our Conservation Youth Worker on the Peterborough Green Pathways project, funded by BBC Children in Need.}

I was inspired this month by Froglife’s big media story about the common toad. I love toads; I think they may be my favourite (but don’t tell frogs!) I like the fact that you can pick one up and get close, let children handle them (carefully), without them leaping out of your hand. It’s these personal experiences with nature that really resonate with people. We remember these for a long time, and maybe are inspired to think more about wildlife in the future.

cuvottow8aawxuf

The story I have written is set in one of those horrible day time TV shows. I imagined the audience in the story to be either a load of people who don’t care about nature, or a collection of other threatened animals.

Least Concern

“Thanks for coming over, you’ve caused quite a stir this morning. I love it! (“Least concern! Least concern!”) Just between you and me though, I’m hoping for a bit more; you know we love a bit of controversy on the Larry Bile show. Don’t worry, we’ve brought in extra security, so the audience can’t get on stage. We’ll be live in a sec, you ready?

“Morning all, and welcome to the show. We’ve got a very special guest this morning here to justify the recent media storm on the decline of the common toad (“Boo!”) please give a warm welcome to… Warty McToadface! (“Common! Common! Common! Common! Common!”)

“Hi Warty, and thanks for coming in today, I know it’s a busy time for you, preparing to lounge about and sleep for the next 4 months, but could you just justify your existence to the audience today?”

See, there’s the problem right there Larry. Why should I have to justify myself? Do I not have a right to live here?” (Boo! Crawl off! We don’t want you’re kind ‘round here! Boo!”)

“Ok, but I think the viewers would love to hear about what you do for a living. Am I right?” (“Sits under stones all day, I’ll bet!”)

“Ok, well, if you really need something, then I suppose I do eat pest species like slugs and spiders, I am part of a healthy wetland ecosystem which has all kinds of other uses, and I am iconic in literature and British culture…is that enough?”

“Well, an icon, no less?” (“You’re ugly, and you know you are!”)

“I prefer to focus on the food-chain element.”

“Indeed. But I’ve been reading up on your species, you know I like to know a bit about my guests. It says right here on the IUCN website that we shouldn’t even be bothered by your kind. You’ve got family over most of Europe and beyond, (“The Irish never let ‘em in though, did they?”) you live in a wide range of places, you’ve got a large population and it says here, and I quote, that you are: ‘unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.’ What do you have to say about that then? These are international specialists saying this, I might add. I’ve not just asked my mate down the pub. It says right here “population stable.”

“What’s the date?”

“What?”

“What’s the date of the data that was used, and when the assessment was made?” (Boo! Just answer the question!”)

“Err…”

“I can tell you it’s 2008. The information used to make that assessment is from 2008. That’s eight years ago. Eight years. If you look at this most recent research from Froglife you’ll see that the biggest declines have been in the most recent years, so in 2008, the data might have hinted at a stable population (although we’re pretty sure that’s not what was going on in Britain) but it’s not what is going on now. The key to why scientists are now worried, is the rate of decline, not our absolute numbers. And this recent study was huge, far bigger than any previous research. It’s simply more robust. We’ve lost hundreds of thousands and we’re still declining.”

“…”

“And we might be found all over, but we also need to move around. These days, the only safe way for us to cross a road is by bucket (thanks toad patrollers). The effects of climate change is only going to get worse and…”

“Yes, I’ve heard that the warm weather affects your ability to sleep. So sorry.”

“… We’ve lost ponds and feeding areas to housing developments. We are not really a suburban species, unlike Hoppy McFrogface over there. We need bigger ponds, a more hospitable countryside.”

“But, you’re common Warty, why should we spend millions of tax-payers money on tunnels, and have our housing developments stopped because of you?”

“I think you’ve missed the point Larry. We may be common now, but it won’t last long. And anyway, everyone benefits from quality green space.” (“Boo! Homes, not nature! Homes, not Nature”)

“I think you can see what our audience thinks of that, Warty. Well thanks for coming and good luck. Warty McToadface, everyone.” (Boo!”)

Goodbye Mr Toad? Scientists chart a worrying drop in numbers of our most lovable amphibian.

October 6, 2016 by admin

A new study led by Froglife, together with experts from Switzerland has shown how the efforts of ordinary members of the public are identifying big declines in our native amphibians.

Every year thousands of volunteers in the UK, working as part of Froglife’s ‘Toads on Roads’ patrols, help save amphibians as they migrate to their breeding ponds across busy roads. Toads are particularly vulnerable and over 800,000 are carried to safety by volunteers each year in the UK and Switzerland.

Froglife’s conservation scientists teamed up with Swiss counterparts to analyse millions of records of common toads (scientific name Bufo bufo) collected by these patrols over more than three decades from the two countries. Unfortunately, despite the effort of the volunteers, the researchers show that our toads have undergone huge declines.

On average common toads have declined by 68% over the last 30 years in the UK. In some areas, such as the south east of England, declines have been even more pronounced.

The team’s results, published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161943), show that toads have declined rapidly and continuously since the 1980s in both countries. It is likely that hundreds of thousands of toads have disappeared from the countryside in the past 30 years.

In the UK, south east England suffered the worst declines while in the west (including Wales, south west and west England) populations also declined but have remained stable for the past decade. The North, including northern counties and Scotland, has also seen significant toad declines in the past 20 years.

It is not clear what has caused numbers of toads to drop so dramatically but likely causes are a combination of changes to farming practices, loss of ponds, an increase in urbanisation and more deaths on roads as traffic values have increased. Climate change could also be a factor as research has shown that milder winters are detrimental for hibernating toads.

Dr. Silviu Petrovan, Conservation Coordinator at Froglife and one of the authors of the study said:

“Toad declines at this scale over such large areas are really worrying. Toads are extremely adaptable and can live in many places ranging from farmland and woodland to suburban gardens. They are also important pest controllers eating slugs, snails and insects and are food themselves for many of our most likeable mammals such as otters and polecats. Without the efforts of the thousands of volunteers that go out and move amphibians across busy roads we would have no idea that these declines had occurred and the situation could be much worse. One thing that is clear is that we need to do more to look after our environment in order to protect the species that depend on it.”

Paul Edgar, The Senior Amphibian and Reptile Specialist from Natural England, the government’s adviser for the natural environment in England and who have funded Froglife on road mitigation research, said:

“This paper highlights a number of important issues for our native amphibians and conservation more generally in the UK. The common toad is sadly on a downward trend. This is partly because of habitat fragmentation, and so understanding and mitigating the impacts of this issue is vital. We need to continue to build good quality habitat links across the wider landscape if we are to offer opportunities for this species to recover. We’re working hard to do this through measures such as Countryside Stewardship in the rural setting, and ensuring good quality Green Infrastructure is included in new developments. This paper reinforces the vital positive role that the public play in both protecting and recording data about our wildlife. We need to build on this engagement to further help us collaboratively reverse these declines as a matter of urgency.”

Archives for October 2016

Footer

Contact us