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What our animals are doing this month

What our animals are doing this month… May 2020

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This month we will delve into some of our reptile species as May is one month which is key for our snakes.  Both the adder and grass snake usually undertake mating during April / May.

Adder males pick up pheromones in the air from females to locate them.  Where multiple males encounter each other they can become engaged in the ‘Dance of the Adders’ – a wrestling match between individuals to force the loser out of a range.  This doesn’t involve biting and should settle matters without violence.  Larger males are known to fight more often.  In courtship, males flick their tongues over a females back and sides before following her movements.  Females may mate with several males over the course of a season and clutches of young can be from multiple fathers – even from previous seasons on occasion (Stille et al. 1986).

Grass snakes mate soon after emerging from the winter.  Mating balls can form where anywhere up to eight males and one or two females can be entangled for up to two hours.  The largest females are often sought after and the largest males have more success in these wrestling encounters.

Froglife’s new app – the Wildlife Pond Visualiser – is a great way to benefit species that use ponds such as grass snakes.  See here for more – https://bit.ly/2VfkuHU

What our animals are doing this month… April 2020

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We will have hopefully seen activity from our common frogs and our common toads by this point, but by April we can look forward to seeing more of our newts.  Palmate newts can often be seen in March / April with the highest activity levels from late afternoon to midnight.  Their active state in a pond correlates beneficially with the presence of frogspawn – an important food source for palmate newts who can extract the embryo from the spawn.  Courtship and displaying between males and females will begin by this time.  Palmate newt males have been observed displaying to smooth newt females – however female newts do not respond to the incorrect frequency of tail fans from the male, with palmate newt males fanning roughly twice as fast as smooth newts.

Smooth newts will be moving towards the water by March / April mostly at night and especially after periods of rainfall.  They will be at their highest numbers in the pond by April / May.  Female smooth newts judge males by the height and length of their crest, which takes more food intake to develop.  Females will mate with several males over the course of the season but have been observed becoming more selective in a partner as the season progresses, choosing males with better crests.

Smooth Newt

What our animals are doing this month… March 2020

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March is usually a good time to see our common toads migrating towards their breeding ponds, although the weather and temperature are strong factors for when that happens from year to year.

Toads mostly travel by night so the best time to observe them is at dusk and before dawn. Then once at the pond, the peak of mating and spawning is most likely to occur at or close to a full moon.

Males tend to arrive first at the breeding ponds, with females and smaller males appearing later.  It is common for some males to await the arrival of the females on land surrounding the pond, which leads to many females arriving with males already in amplexus (where the males use specially developed, rough pads on the first two digits of their forefeet to grasp and hold onto the backs of females).

Unfortunately this obvious eagerness to breed and a high male-to-female ratio can lead to mating balls as pictured.  This can even lead to fatal results in some cases with individuals in the centre drowning if the ball is not broken up.  In happier circumstances breeding and spawning takes place, with common toad spawn being laid in strings with rows of two eggs – often wrapped around plants in the pond.

A mating ball of three males and one female common toad.  ©Charlotte Pearson

What our animals are doing this month… February 2020

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February is a great month to start looking for signs of amphibians breeding and laying eggs.

This month keep a look out for common frog laying spawn as the weather improves.  They are the first of our amphibians to start breeding.  Common frog spawn can be easily recognised in ponds with clumps of jelly-like eggs (sometimes forming a large mass) visible on the ponds surface with each egg containing the potential for a tadpole to develop and hatch.

From March we may start to see common toad spawn in our ponds – though this tends to be much harder to spot. Toad spawn is laid in strings of eggs, usually wrapped around plants in the pond and below the water’s surface – so more investigation is required for these sightings!

Next is the turn of our three species of native newts to start laying eggs.  Again the eggs are very different from those of frog or toad and even harder to spot!  Females lay each individual egg onto a leaf of a plant in the pond, folding this leaf over carefully with their hind legs and sticking this together with an adhesive substance they produce.  This protects the egg from ultraviolet damage and predators in the pond.  Be aware that unwrapping a newt egg from it’s leaf will likely prove fatal for the egg and uncovering eggs or generally disturbing the great crested newt is illegal without a licence. If you do manage sightings of the above then let us know through Froglife’s free Dragon Finder app in the Google Play and Apple Store!  Letting us know when amphibians start breeding in your local patch is useful when determining year to year trends.  Also knowing where amphibian populations are and are not located can help Froglife decide on future works to benefit our species.

Sightings – such as this sighting of frogspawn – can be submitted through Froglife’s Dragon Finder app and help support our work for amphibians