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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… 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

What our animals are doing this month.

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What our animals are doing this month… September 2019

As we head towards the end of summer we reach the period where newts will leave ponds for the year, with most newts having left their pond by the end of August. Overwintering newts or those still in the process of metamorphosis may still be present within a pond however. Great crested newts may move up to 120m in a night and may disperse up to 1km in total. 

These movements will be dictated by the availability of surrounding habitats in addition to any barriers present that may be a problem such as roads, which can reduce habitat connectivity and cause road mortality for amphibians. Adult newts are more likely to engage in short-term migration with juveniles responsible for long-term and wider ranging dispersal throughout the landscape and between other sub-populations. Studies have also suggested that female newts are involved in longer distance movements than males.

Newts still in the process of metamorphosis will also disperse in due course. Great crested newt larvae will reach a length of 50 – 90mm before metamorphosis, smooth newt larvae at 30 – 45mm and palmate newt larvae at 25 – 40mm. During this process they will grow legs and absorb their external gills which are replaced by lungs to breathe air.

Remember to record your sightings of amphibians and reptiles on our Dragon Finder app. 

Fig 1: Great crested newts on the move as our summer months head to a close [Credit: Lin Wenlock]

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