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Inspired by Nature: Space to Connect and Grow

August 26, 2015 by Admin

^{Inspired by Nature is a themed Croak to entertain you with some of our favourite artwork 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.}

Over the summer term Froglife’s Green Pathways project worked with Voyager Academy students at the lovely Olive Branch Community Gardens located in a deprived area of Peterborough. This garden is such a fantastic place for young people; its gives them an opportunity to learn, contribute to their community and is somewhere they can simply relax and let off some steam. Over the weeks we spent there we hunted for frogs, harvested veggies, watered, toasted marshmallows and hunted for more frogs (this never gets boring). For the last few sessions, we invited local poet Keely Mills along to show us how to put words together in a creative way. She wrote four poems, some of which were with help from the young people. Here is the one she wrote about attending her first session with us. The rest will follow in future Inspired by Nature’s

A Space to Connect and Grow

Along a narrow alleyway, fenced by white brick.

In through the gate and wood chip driveways.

I shut the door on the concrete faces.

Lock the madness behind me and out of me.

I take the handbag off my chest.

I close the screen of the I-phone five.

With its apps that count down to Christmas.

My boss’s face and email are a ghost now.

Nature’s love is waiting for me.

I am pleased that we are making a fire,

More pleased to know we will cook jacket potatoes.

I am surrounded by strawberries.

I am immersed in June’s undecided weather.

Listening to the best things that have happened to people,

I am really content to hear that a dragon has got better.

Happier still when I learn that a friend survived.

As wood is chopped and the oven is being stoked.

I take a walk with a camera.

I feel the poppies petals, shapely like harem skirts.

They dance in red with whirly-gig notes.

These flouncy sirens no longer shy in pale green pin heads.

Already they have stripped their petticoats as if receiving a sailor on shore leave.

Their petals pinched pink as though they had been grabbed and kissed.

I stand in front of their chorus, their red magic has worked.

I dare not touch their flowers for remembrances sake.

Just the memory of my hand casting their sheets of colour,

to the ground as if the grass was a newly married bride.

Sneaky chives catch the edge of my toe nails.

Lavender that never-ending dream of a herb,

grabs my nose and performs upon it as if it were a perfume

counter girl in John Lewis.

Showing of its smells in deep strands of blueberry yoghurt.

Each one a sampler that sprays itself, I cannot

stop from testing all its strands by pulling its scent,

through my fingers.

Fennel is the first, iconic fractals in childhood sweets, spreading to the sky.

Whilst sage refuses to be a pot plant, rather a tyrant that defends its battalion.

Remaining stead fast from Spring to Winter.

I rest a time, sitting amongst the throne of berries that seats a 100 bees.

Whose royalty is hard working and mesmerising.

I linger my ears on their gentle hum as they fill their back legs with busy nectar.

These regal creatures are not the only kind in this Eden.

I take part in the unveiling of a frog from under a pot.

It leaps from hands and quickly we fly it to a nearby pond.

The thought of the cold water makes me creep towards kelly kettle.

Hot chocolate in the open air.

Apollo’s golden chariot is above the houses at the edge of this heavenly patch.

Bluebirds are its cheerleaders, swiping at the sky in an ethereal and noisy display.

Within my breath that is now as delicate as sweet peas.

I feel better.

I can get through each fabricated prospect the world chucks at me.

By Keely Mills June 2015

Inspired by exploring Olive Branch Community Gardens with Voyager Academy Students taking part in Froglife’s Green Pathways project.

Croaking Science: Citizen science and monitoring wildlife heath

August 26, 2015 by Admin

Citizen scientists have been an essential part of our understanding of the natural world for hundreds of years but their contribution and importance have only been formalised and widely recognised in the last decades. Such unpaid members of the public, ranging from experts to beginners, can collect a great diversity of biological data, often in the form of species records in a variety of habitats. In addition, citizen science can be employed to answer complex biological questions and, provided that adequate measures are incorporated in the design, it can do so in a robust and cheap way while covering a very large spatial scale. The potential to cover huge areas of land, even at continental scale, over a long period of time and including private land which is otherwise difficult to access, is one of the main advantages of incorporating citizen science projects in biological monitoring. However, creating a functional framework for citizen science is not straightforward and recruiting and maintaining high volunteer engagement can be equally complicated. In this context, a new review published this month is aiming to evaluate the potential for citizen science to be incorporated for wildlife disease surveillance, including reviewing the benefits for the scientists, for participating members of the public and for wildlife species alike, as well as the logistical and financial implications and the limitations.

Newt searching, RT Feb10

Diseases have always represented one of the major factors driving the dynamics of animal and plant populations, but in recent years this has become especially relevant given that the fast pace of globalisation is bringing together organisms that have been separated by millions of years and creating the conditions for catastrophic disease outbreaks, such as the much-discussed chytrid fungus devastating amphibian populations on four continents. Similarly, in the 1990s Froglife and the Institute of Zoology in London have used citizen science in the form of reports from members of the public, to understand, identify and discuss the presence of a new amphibian disease, called ranavirosis, that was only emerging then and was impacting strongly common frog populations in large parts of England. The virus had most likely been brought to the UK and mainland Europe by the pet trade with fish or the trade with aquatic ornamental plants. Although much remains unclear, primarily how to successfully treat the disease, we now know that moving frogspawn and tadpoles between ponds could accelerate the spread of the disease and that the presence of fish species, such as goldfish, in garden ponds, is likely to exacerbate the severity of the disease in amphibians (North et all, 2015). Given that the data was collected in private garden ponds it is very likely that without the power of citizen science it would have remained hidden for much longer. All of this was changed and made possible using the data collected by members of the public and reported to Froglife.

The Frog Mortality project has now been continued with the Garden Wildlife Health project and is aiming to continue to use both opportunistic and standardised garden surveys to monitor the health of wildlife species, not just amphibians but also reptiles, mammals such as hedgehogs and birds. If you haven’t yet participated in this project, this is your chance to record incidents in your local wildlife heaven, the urban garden, and in this way become a citizen scientist and contribute to a much greater understanding of biological questions and help the conservation of these wildlife species.

References and further reading:

North AC, Hodgson DJ, Price SJ, Griffiths AGF (2015) Anthropogenic and Ecological Drivers of Amphibian Disease (Ranavirosis). PLoS ONE 10(6): e0127037. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0127037

Lawson B, Petrovan SO, Cunningham AA (2015) Citizen Science and Wildlife Disease Surveillance. Ecohealth, DOI: 10.1007/s10393-015-1054-z

Inspired by Nature: Digging Potatoes and holding frogs

July 31, 2015 by Admin

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

Digging potatoes and holding frogs

None of us say much,

Questions hang like spider webs in the air,

they can’t catch the answers though.

Just a huh or a maybe.

Its an uncomfortable mood

& it seeps into every move we each make.

Even the fire we light, can’t stay aflame.

We split off, each of us an ember.

I am not sure that it will change.

Nature overtakes any doubt.

Within minutes, we are all digging potatoes.

We take it in turns to collect and wash them.

Back together again.

Choosing which of them we will take.

As if it were ready now, the fire is lit.

It reaches the sky and feeds off our new warmth.

We share cooking duties, stories about school.

Some of us hold tiny frogs,

Make badges and boil a kettle.

After we have eaten.

And the taxi has been called.

Each of us hold onto this green feeling for as long as we can.

Now more than ever, I understand that a bad start,

can be mended with dirt, love and growing.

By Keely Mills

July 2015

Croaking Science: Can blind toads teach us something new about invasive species?

July 31, 2015 by Admin

Amphibians are currently experiencing a dramatic man-made extinction crises, with a higher percentage of endangered species than any other vertebrate groups including mammals, fish and birds. However, at the same time, some amphibians introduced by man into new territories have become phenomenally abundant and invasive, so much so that several of them are rated among the worst 100 invasive species on the planet.

Invasive species are one of the main drivers worldwide of biodiversity loss and also a major source of economic damage and as such understanding their ecology, mechanisms for invasiveness, impacts and ways to mitigate their effects are all paramount. This is especially relevant given that the ongoing and fast globalisation means that future introductions, both accidental and deliberate -mostly illegal using animals from the pet industry- are very likely to further increase.

The cane toad (Rhinella marina) in its native habitats in Central America. Photo Silviu Petrovan

The most famous example of an invasive amphibian is the cane toad (Rhinella marina), an imposing Central and South-American species which has been introduced into Australia in the 1930s in a misguided attempt to control a beetle in sugarcane plantations. The cane toad has now spread to most parts of north-western Australia and is causing untold damage to entire ecosystems as naïve Australian species, from monitor lizards and snakes to birds and mammals, eat the toads and die from poisoning given that it can produce large quantities of toxic secretions from its skin as a defensive mechanism. The scale of the invasion as well as the pace of the spread, currently estimated at around 40-60km per year, illustrates the remarkable potential of such species to adapt and take over a new environment following an introduction.

In another recent and fascinating example of invasive potential and adaptability of some amphibians Tolledo and Toledo (2015) report on a related species, the Cururu toad (Rhinella jimi), also from South America, which has been introduced in an effort to control the insect population, to the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, off the west coast of Brazil. The introduction was not official or state-sanctioned and therefore the information about it is scarce but most likely it took place around 100 years ago. Since then, the toad population has hugely expanded and become invasive but is suffering from a very high degree of malformations, both in tadpoles and in adults, including a very large proportion of one-eyed and even blind individuals. Despite this, both half-blind and fully blind individuals were able to survive on the island in similar numbers to normal individuals. The fact that such individuals have adapted to cope with such serious deformities and survive to hunt without relying on vision shows remarkable plasticity and adaptability, all necessary traits for invasive species. The paper describes captive experiments with both blind, half-blind and normal toads from the island where the two groups exhibited completely different foraging strategies, with the blind toads entirely switching their foraging mechanism from active hunting at night relying on vision, to sit and wait predator, relying exclusively on tactile cues and waiting for prey items to come to them and touch them. Equally, the diet composition varied significantly between the groups, with more fast-moving prey items and overall larger numbers of prey for the toads with normal eyesight.

The cause for the huge range of malformations of the Cururu toads in this island remains unknown but this represents a possibly unique experiment showing cascading effects on the toad population following introduction but also remarkable adaptability within a very short period of time.

References and further reading:

The Cane toad in Oz- http://www.canetoadsinoz.com/invasion.html

A BBC illustrated story about this article: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150529-invasion-of-the-blind-toads

Tolledo, J. and Toledo, L. F. (2015), Blind toads in paradise: the cascading effect of vision loss on a tropical archipelago. Journal of Zoology, 296: 167–176. doi: 10.1111/jzo.12233

Work Experience at Froglife

July 31, 2015 by Admin

My name is Ryan and I have been working at Froglife for a week now and can positively say I have thoroughly enjoyed my first week here.

Monday began with my induction where I met the team and learnt about their roles. Then it was straight out to the Olive Branch where I was greeted by an enthusiastic group of children. The children and I went pond dipping searching for frogs and any other eccentric life that might have been hiding from us. Then soon after we discovered a few tadpoles and froglets we all went harvesting and enjoyed the fresh food that there was on offer! Later on during the day we were off to see another group of young children to help finish a wildlife themed mural based on sessions where the children were taken out to local woods searching for wildlife and inspiration like lady birds for example. The children took it in turns to contribute to the mural with help from a professional street artist!

Tuesday consisted of several exciting surveys at the Hampton Nature Reserve. My work experience colleague Matthew and I surveyed a few ponds searching for signs of water Voles. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to find any but we did see some signs of life.

Wednesday we were in the office all day meeting the team and learning about how they got to where they are today in a greater depth which I found fascinating as it’s so inspiring and gives me ideas of what I should look into and strive to achieve when I leave school. After our meetings it was back to work with several tasks around the office.

On Thursday we had a butterfly survey back at the reserve and undoubtedly the best day so far! Searching the reserve high and low for butterflies all shapes and sizes was nothing but amazing, I’ve learnt how to identify several butterflies and what families they belong to, for example the ringlet which is a deep brown in colour. It has two distinctive spots on each wing when spread and derives from the Nymphalidae family. Also we were extremely lucky to see a Marble white shown on the right, also along with a few Cinnabar Moths that made an appearance.

Friday was a calm day at the office doing jobs for people and helping out. Then out at 7-9pm for a guided walk informing the public about a local reserve. Also luckily I lifted a mat that was placed to attract reptiles and hiding below in the undergrowth was a female adder! The only venomous snake in the UK.
The weekend soon went by then it was back to work on Monday but unfortunately the 2 outdoor sessions with young people were cancelled due to the weather but it was no problem as I helped the Dragon Finder team to prepare for the next day out with a primary school instead.

Tuesday started off with an outdoor session at the Olive Branch with 2 teenagers from voyager school. We were accompanied by Keely Mills, a poet and friend of Froglife. All of us began harvesting potatoes and had a very successful yield that we shared amongst ourselves. Soon after that we rushed off to Boardwalks Nature Reserve to aid the Dragon Finder team in their session with a very large group of primary school students. Becca and I took half of the children pond dipping while the Dragon Finder tam were planting vegetation for a newly built pond, the kids really enjoyed themselves!

Wednesday it was back in the office which swiftly went by to Thursday where we had an extremely successful butterfly survey and found a total of 650 butterflies of 17 different species! The few “Commas” that we found were by far my favourite of them all. Also we were extraordinarily lucky to find a “Painted lady”. Accompanied by all these lucky finds were a few Common blues that had not been seen this year until Thursday.

Finally on Friday I was back at the reserve planning reptile tin installation and placement. Unfortunately we didn’t see anything like I did on the walk but hopefully these will attract reptiles of all sorts in the upcoming future.

I can definitely say on the whole I have thoroughly enjoyed my two weeks here, and have learnt a great deal as before I came I knew near enough nothing about conservation. Teamwork has been a key role in this job and it’s worked out perfectly and I’ve enjoyed being a part of an effective team. Next year when I have more spare time I hope to come back and help out due to my great experience here!

Inspired by Nature: Entangled adjectives

May 29, 2015 by Admin

^{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.}

“It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us … Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved” On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection Charles Darwin 1859.

Since wildlife and the environment are my passion, I read a lot of books on the subject. I have also been thinking a lot about inspiring books, particularly for children, recently having just written a children’s story that hopefully Froglife will “publish” (see last month’s “Inspired by Nature”). Origin of Species is probably the most influential book I have read and I urge you to try it. Darwin’s style is very readable and I like how logically he puts his argument. The theory of evolution has itself evolved and some of the problems he highlights we can now explain or have new evidence that suggests an alternative way of thinking about it. However, the basic premise remains.

I particularly like this passage which comes right at the end of the book. It uses much more poetic language than the rest of the book and every time I read it, I can imagine standing next to, and contemplating such a bank. (The bank I imagine is usually in Devon as this is the part of the country I believe has the best hedges…ooh, I feel a hedge war coming on!) I also get a comedy image in my head of Darwin standing by the side of a road staring at a hedge with his finger on the side of his lips in a “hmm” kind of manner. Hares are giving him funny looks from the field next door. I feel I have Darwin’s approval whenever I find myself doing just this.

This week I was given an English lesson by a Year 3 child with selective mutism. We read a sentence together about frogs and she whispered in my ear that there were several adjectives in the sentence: frog’s legs were “long” and “stripy” and their skin was “wet”. I think this is what stands out in Darwin’s paragraph for me and makes the imagery so strong; the insects are “flitting”, the worms are “crawling” and the earth is “damp”. The bank is alive.

I like the bit about how living things are all different but follow the same basic laws and are dependent on each other in complex ways. To me, this suggests a lesson in how people should view each other and also how we should view the environment. We don’t know how losing species will affect how ecosystems work and yet we are losing species at an alarming rate. We all depend on functioning ecosystems and yet we are doing our best to ensure they don’t.

We would love to know what books about nature really inspire you. Tweet us @froglifers, email us info@froglife.org or tell us on our Facebook page.

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