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Inspired by Nature: Limericks

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Inspired by Nature is a new themed Croak to entertain you with some of my own and my favourite famous poems written about nature and the outdoors. I hope it will stimulate you to get creative with words and write something yourself. If you do and would like to share them with us, please post them on our facebook page. 
Becca (Conservation Youth Worker: Green Pathways Project).

Everyone loves a limerick, but have you ever tried to write one yourself?

I attend a weekly creative writing class. One week, I had not done any homework and knocked these out after work to ensure I had something to hand in! I love being outdoors, so everything I wrote is true (except now I have my own handsome man and so obviously, only love that one!).

A limerick is a short funny poem with 5 lines where the first, second and fifth lines rhyme and the third and forth rhyme (in literary terms, this is described as the rhyme scheme AABBA). They are often rude and nonsense. The first line usually introduces a character and a place. There are complicated ways to talk about the rhythm which uses words like feet, syllables and meter but basically it goes like this:

da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
da DUM da da DUM
da DUM da da DUM
da DUM da da DUM da da DUM

Here are mine:
There once was a girl in the fens
Who took teenagers out to build dens
She wrote poetry for fun
Read short stories she’s done
As they always contain handsome men
There once was a wildlife nerd
Whose specialist subject was birds
She also liked badgers
And searching for adders
And loved handsome men, so I’ve heard

What you can do:

Why not have a go yourself, perhaps inspired by a walk on your local nature reserve or watching the birds with your kids ? Please don’t share the really rude ones, but any that you would read to your mother we would love to see on our facebook page.

croak all about it

Understanding wildlife disease

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A new initiative was launched today to investigate the health of wildlife disease in Britain.

Launched by a new partnership between the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Froglife and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and based on the predecessor projects, Garden Bird Health initiative and the Frog Mortality Project; the Garden Wildlife Heath Project launches today.

To find out more about today’s launch follow this link to ZSL’s website and find out more about the Garden Wildlife Health Project here.

This is an exciting project and we hope that anyone who loves amphibians or reptiles will take part in the project and let others know about it and as the launch says help “Nurture the nature in your garden”

Healthy smooth newt ©Mike Toms
Healthy smooth newt ©Mike Toms
Common frog with candle wax lesions, consistent with Ranid Herpesvirus Skin Disease © Sarah Reed
Common frog with candle wax lesions, consistent with Ranid Herpesvirus Skin Disease © Sarah Reed

Croaking Science: Gastric-brooding frogs – a uniqueness lost forever?

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Croaking science is a new way for student volunteers and scientist to explore what’s occurring in the world of Science – science facts, new research or old debates which are inspired by or affect amphibians and reptiles, and then communicate this to a wider audience in their own words. The aim of the feature is to provide a platform for those starting their foray into the world of science communications as well as established scientists.  We welcome any submissions from students and scientists. Please note that the views expressed in the articles are not those of the Froglife Trust.

This is the time of year where you may be getting together with friends and family for meals all over the world. When you do, think about what this frog went without, to look after it’s young. From one of our new Croaking Science Volunteers Hannah Graves.

Gastric-brooding frogs were discovered in Australia in the 1970’s (1). There are two known species, the Northern (Rheobatrachus vitellinus) and the Southern (R.silus) (2), neither of which has been seen in the wild since the 1980’s (3). It isn’t known exactly what caused the demise of the two species, it is believed that logging and disturbances to the water quality in their habitats may have had an effect on the Southern species (4) and wide spread forest fires and habitat destruction could be implicated in the loss of the Northern species (5). As with all amphibian populations globally, the fungal disease Chytridiomycosis can’t be ruled out (1).

As the common names suggest, this genus of frog had a very unusual way of caring for their young. After the female had mated, she swallowed her eggs! This meant that the tadpoles could develop in her stomach safe from predators (6). After six to seven weeks the tadpoles metamorphosed into young frogs and crawled back out of the female’s mouth (4). During this brooding period the female switched off the production of hydrochloric acid to prevent digesting her young (7). This meant that she couldn’t eat whilst carrying her young. Just four days after her young emerged, the female’s digestive system returned to normal and she resumed eating (4). Unfortunately, as the two species are now classified as extinct (1) (8), it is unlikely we will ever learn the secrets of how they managed to shut down their digestive systems and then start them up again.

Sadly, this story of discovering a new species only to lose them a few years later is all too common (9), and with them we lose their untold stories.

What you can do

Support initiatives to inspire the next generation of herpetologists (scientists that specialise in amphibian and reptiles) including our conservation and education work .

Even our “common” species are declining in some areas. If nothing is done now, they may not be there in the future. Use our Dragon Finder app to report any of your amphibian and reptile sightings (applicable to species found in the UK). So that the location of your local populations are recorded.

References

(1) Meyer, E.; Newell, D.; Hines, H.; May, S.; Hero, J.; Clarke, J.; Lemckert, F. (2004). Rheobatrachus silus. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.1. Downloaded on 01 October 2013.

(2) IUCN (2013). IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.1. www.iucnredlist.org Downloaded on 01 October 2013.

(3) Hines, H. (2002) Recovery plan for Stream Frogs of South-east Queensland 2001-2005. Environmental Protection Agency, Queensland, Australia. Downloaded on 01 October 2013.

(4) Tyler, M.J. and Davies, M. 1983. The gastric brooding frog. M.J. Tyler, eds., Croom Helm, London.

(5) Hero, J. and Morrison, C. (2004). Frog declines in Australia: global implications. Herpetological Journal 14:175-186.

(6) Tyler, M.J. and Carter, D.B. (1982). Oral birth of the young of the gastric-brooding frog Rheobatrachus silus. Animal Behaviour 29:280-282.

(7) Tyler, M.J.; Shearman, D.J.C.; Franco, R.; O’Brien, P.; Seamark, R.F.; Kelly, R. (1983). Inhabitaion of gastric acid secretion in the Gastric Brooding Frog, Rheobatrachus silus. Science 220:609-610.

(8) Hero, J.; McDonald, K.; Alford, R.; Cunningham, M.; Retallick, R. (2004). Rheobatrachus vitellinus. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.1.  Downloaded on 01 October 2013.

(9) Wake, D.B. and Vredenburg, V.T. (2008). Are we in the midst of the sixth mass extinction? A view from the world of amphibians. Proceedings from the National Academy of Science 105:11466-11473.

Croaking Science: The Golden Toad

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 As our Common Toads start to enter hibernation after a tricky weather year; Becky Austin our Croaking Science Volunteer, talks about how climate change affected one of their cousins in Costa Rica.

The very first species whose extinction was blamed on climate change due to anthropogenic causes was an amphibian: the Golden Toad. Once abundant in a small area of the Costa Rican cloud forests of Central America, the last individual sighting was in 1989 and in 2004, the toad was stated as extinct.

Golden Toads, or Bufo periglenes, were only 5cm long and showed sexual dimorphism: males had bright ‘golden’ skin, whereas females had olive skin with red spots and a yellow rim. Golden toads also showed the extraordinary feature of ‘gastric breeding’, where eggs were kept in the stomach of the female until the tadpoles were ready to leave via the mouth.

How was climate change to blame for the extinction of this fascinating species? Recent discoveries may show that the toad’s extinction coincided with a very dry period of time caused by an El Niño event in 1986-7 (where a warm Pacific current affected the South American climate). This caused breeding pools to dry out and population numbers to crash as few tadpoles could survive. However, this alone may not be the cause.

Gobal warming is causing consistent atmospheric temperature changes in most parts of the world, including the toad’s home range in Costa Rica. Many scientists believe that in these highland areas, conditions are increasingly becoming more suited to the prolific growth of the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which may have caused the extinction of the golden toad. Even if the fungus initially spread due to the conditions the El Niño caused in the late 80s, continual warming will increase the fungus’s rate of destruction, leading to many further amphibian extinctions. Global warming must therefore be addressed as quickly as possible as the root of many species extinctions.

 

By Charles H. Smith, vergrößert von Aglarech (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) [Public domain]
By Charles H. Smith, vergrößert von Aglarech (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) [Public domain]

What can you do to help?

Check out our website and get clued up about chytrid fungus and what it looks like; so you can report any potential sightings of the disease.

Donate to Froglife this year and help us continue our work with amphibians and reptiles in 2014

References

Pounds, J.A., Bustamante, M.R., Coloma, L.A., Consuegra, J.A., Fogden, M.P.L., Foster, P.N., La Marca, E., Masters, K.L., Merino-Viteri, A., Puschendorf, R., Ron, S.R., Sanchez-Azofeifa, G.A., Still, C.J. and Young, B.E. (2006). Widespread amphibian extinctions from epidemic disease driven by global warming. Nature, 439: 161-167.

Anchukaitis, K.J . and Evans, M.N. (2010). Tropical cloud forest climate variability and the demise of the Monteverde golden toad. PNAS, 107: 5036-5040.

 

Froglife help Children in Need

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The annual BBC Children in Need fundraising day is upon us. What have you done to raise funds?

It’s easy to think that the young people supported by this fantastic charity are in other, more desperate, places in the UK, but there are vulnerable and disadvantaged young people living on your street, they’re in your city and are being supported by a project that works in your neighbourhood.

Pat yourself on the back! One of the projects that the BBC Children in Need money that you raised pays for is Froglife’s Green Pathways project in Peterborough. We work with teenagers whose lives are made more difficult by, for example, disability, deprivation, drink and drugs abuse or learning difficulties. It also supports the City’s most vulnerable young people who have fallen onto a road that leads to unemployment, antisocial behaviour and crime, guiding them in a more positive direction.

Green Pathways works on practical, outdoor, conservation-linked activities and projects in community gardens, local nature reserves and parks across Peterborough. We deliver outdoor therapy to hundreds of young people improving confidence, social skills and behaviour along the way, as well as increasing their knowledge and enjoyment of the outdoors and providing them with new transferable skills.

Froglife’s Conservation Youth Worker Rebecca Neal, the project officer for Green Pathways says: “I am so lucky to be part of this work. Being outdoors has such a therapeutic effect on people; it’s great to see how well young people respond.”

A current group who have been engaged in Green Pathways since the start of term, come from NeneGate School; a special school for young people with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. They have held a newt, learned how to manage amphibian habitat with saws and loppers, built dens and climbed trees. Last week they visited Green Backyard to do some wildlife gardening and cook outdoor pizza.
131025 beans on a bonfire with nenegate

At the end of a similar project, a lecturer from Peterborough Regional College said “This has been an amazing experience. It was wonderful to work as a group and see the students supporting each other.”

So if you were wondering if it’s really worth putting your hand in your pocket for another charity event. It is. Absolutely and without doubt.

Please support Children in Need today and if you want to be specific with your charity, you can help Green Pathways by volunteering or donating money for ongoing running costs by visiting Froglife.

 

bbc children in need logo