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What our animals are doing this month…

May 1, 2024 by Admin

Late spring or early summer is a good time to be on the lookout for tadpoles! You might spot common frog or common toad tadpoles or, if you are lucky and on the coast, you might even spot natterjack toad tadpoles!

You might have spotted a few tadpoles already as frogs can lay their frogspawn as early as January and it can take two to four weeks for tadpoles to hatch out. As the tadpoles grow, they become faintly speckled with gold/brown and will slowly grow back and front legs!

Common toads breed a little later than common frogs, laying double strings of spawn and wrapping it carefully around vegetation. Again, it will take two to four weeks for the tadpoles to hatch out. To tell the difference between frog and toad tadpoles, you simply have to look at their colour. Toad tadpoles remain jet black and can also form shoals so can be easier to spot.

Natterjack toad spawn. Credit: Matt Wilson

The natterjack toad is confined to just a handful of sites on the coast in the UK and is only found on the Solway Coast in Scotland. Breeding for natterjack toads takes place in March/April but can continue into the early summer. So, depending on the natterjacks in your area, you may see males waiting by the pond edge (making loud rasping noises to attract the females), natterjack toad spawn or even some tadpoles! Natterjack toad spawn is laid in single strings with their tadpoles being smaller than common toad tadpoles and sporting a grey spot on their throat.

Always remember to record your amphibian and reptile sightings on our FREE Dragon Finder app. All of the data collected is sent to the National Biodiversity Network Atlas. You can download the app here.

What our animals are doing this month…

April 1, 2024 by Admin

Written by Jade Walton, Transforming Lives Trainee

Now that spring is well under way, we have entered a very exciting time in the life cycles of our native amphibian species. As slightly warmer weather hits, our amphibians leave their overwintering sites and head to ponds to breed. Now we are in April, many of our amphibians will have laid their eggs, so now is the perfect time to spot the spawn in your local ponds!

Here is a quick guide to the eggs and breeding rituals of some of our native amphibians:

Common Frog

Potentially as early as January in the South East of England, and up to April in other areas of the UK, the common frog will emerge from their winter hideouts and head back to a pond. Male frogs will ‘piggy back’ on their chosen female using their nuptial pads to hold on tightly. This is a process known as ‘amplexus’. He will then fertilise her spawn as she lays it. Common frog eggs are laid in clumps, with up to 2,000 eggs laid in one single clump. Female frogs can lay up to 4,000 eggs over one breeding season.

Common Toad

Common toads will ritually return to the same pond for breeding each year where possible. They take advantage of warmer, damp spring evenings to leave their overwintering sites and return to their specific pond. This behaviour makes them notorious for crossing roads over night and putting themselves at risk of being run over. Our Toads on Roads project gathers wonderful volunteers across the UK to assist the toads in their road crossing journeys, saving many toad lives in the process! Once they enter the pond, much like with common frogs, male toads will ‘piggy back’ on to a female (amplexus). The spawn of the common toad is laid in long double strings, strewn around underwater plants (rather than in clumps). The natterjack toad lays eggs in a single strand!

Newts

Once the warmer weather of spring hits, newts too will venture back to a suitable pond to breed and lay eggs. Males of each newt species will perform elaborate ‘dances’ to attract the attention of females, who will choose which male gets to fertilise their eggs. Newt eggs are laid in a very different way to toads and frogs. A female newt will lay each egg individually, she will lay the egg on the leaf of an aquatic plant and carefully fold the leaf around the egg to protect it, giving the leaf a very straight edge where it has been folded over. Newts lay less eggs than their toad and frog counterparts, but females will still lay hundreds over the season.

When out and about, see if you can spot any amphibian eggs in your local area and remember to record them on our free Dragon Finder App!

#StopSpawnSales- What you can do to help

March 11, 2024 by Admin

Froglife run our annual #StopSpawnSales social media campaign during March to tackle the illegal practice of selling wild-caught amphibian spawn and tadpoles online.

As most of us are aware, we are now in the peak of amphibian breeding season as our species are laying their eggs in ponds and pools across the country. This time of year also sees an unfortunate sharp rise in sales of wild-caught amphibian spawn (and even tadpoles) on online selling sites.

One of the biggest reasons for people buying spawn/tadpoles online is to stock their ponds at home. However, if there is no spawn or tadpoles in your garden pond, then there is a good reason for this. Either your pond hasn’t had time to establish or the pond/ surrounding environment is unsuitable and this could result in the bought spawn failing or the tadpoles that develop from it to die.

Another reason for people buying spawn/ tadpoles is to use them as an educational tool and watch them develop at home. We aren’t party poopers! We know how fascinating it can be to take spawn home, watch it grow and release the tadpoles/froglets back into the wild, but we want people to do this legally and safely! Not only is there a massive risk of spreading amphibian disease and viruses, invasive plants and invertebrates, but the sale of wild-caught spawn or tadpoles is an offence under The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

What you can do to #StopSpawnSales:

Never buy wild-caught spawn/tadpoles online! If you decide to raise frogspawn, it is crucial that all tadpoles/froglets/toadlets are released to the ponds where they were found to prevent spreading disease and invasive species
If you see wild-caught spawn/tadpoles for sale on social media or online marketplaces, please report it to the marketplace itself in the first instance
If further action is needed (i.e the posts aren’t taken down), please report it to your local Police’s Wildlife Crime Officer (with screen shots of the advert if possible)
Spread the word! like and share our social media posts and encourage those around you to #StopSpawnSales

Further resources:

FSC Guide to Keeping Common Frog Tadpoles

Amphibian FAQs

Information on UK Amphibians

Just Add Water guide (a guide for creating wildlife ponds)

Wildlife at Home (guides on how to make your gardens more wildlife friendly)

Preparing for Spring

February 1, 2024 by Admin

Written by Ellia Cobb, Transforming Lives Trainee.

It’s almost springtime again! Reptiles and amphibians will be getting ready to come out of their brumation and begin their breeding season, so what can you do to help them? If you have a wildlife pond at home it is important to finish up any pond maintenance you might want to do before the weather starts to warm up. Disturbing breeding and egg-laying amphibians can be very harmful, so ensuring good pond maintenance is essential.

Preparing your wildlife pond for spring is a simple task as they don’t require much work. Cutting back reed and grass from the pond if it is too overgrown to allow more sunlight in can hugely benefit the pond, but remember to leave enough for the breeding amphibians! Another thing you can do is remove leaf litter and sediment build up from the pond to prevent a decrease in the water quality, but this should be done before spring. Anything that is removed should be left by the pond for a few days just in case any wildlife remains inside of it, this gives them time to make their way back to the water (please see our Just Add Water guide for further tips).

Newts need vegetation to lay their eggs and toads and frogs need a safe place to lay their spawn away from predators.

The changing weather can be quite confusing for amphibians so it isn’t uncommon for them to start breeding earlier than expected, so don’t be alarmed if you spot any spawn or eggs quite early on. You do not need to move or disturb them. Newts need vegetation to lay their eggs and toads and frogs need a safe place to lay their spawn away from predators, so providing native pond plants and safe places for them to hide before spring starts is the best idea.

As for reptiles bramble, compost heaps, log piles, gorse and wooded areas are all places they may choose to breed in. This means that any garden maintenance shouldn’t be done during this time to prevent disturbance and endangerment.

You can find further information on how to make your gardens more wildlife friendly in our Idea Zone.

Croaking Science: 2023 so far- what have we learned from the Dragon Finder App?

February 27, 2023 by Admin

As we fast approach the spring and our amphibians and reptiles begin to stir after their winter period of relative dormancy (known as brumation) we can expect sightings to increase in frequency. Whilst the occasional pioneering common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) or adder (Vipera berus) will emerge from their hibernacula to bask in winter sun, it’s the UK’s amphibians that bring the most herptile activity to this time of the year. This is reflected in the sightings that have been reported to Froglife’s Dragon Finder App so far in 2023.

At the time of writing (mid-February 2023), we’ve verified 42 reports submitted to the App; 24 sightings of common frogs (Rana temporaria), 6 encounters with common toads (Bufo bufo), 8 palmate newt sightings (Lissotriton helveticus), 2 smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) sightings and 1 sighting of a great-crested newt (Triturus cristatus) and an alpine newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris) respectively.

All this amphibian action heralds the commencement of their breeding season. Common frogs lead the charge; the earliest report of frogspawn this year came to us from the Isles of Scilly, 45km south-west of mainland Cornwall, reported to us on the 9^th January yet seen on Christmas Eve! UK common frogs spawn earliest here due to the archipelago’s unique climate – the moderating oceanic influence on which means that winters are warmer there than anywhere else in the UK and consequently snow and frost (potentially detrimental to spawn) are rare. We’ve received a total of 11 frogspawn reports so far in 2023, with the majority of these coming from Devon & Cornwall, reflecting the relatively warm winters experienced by the southwest more broadly. We’re now looking forward to witnessing reports of frogspawn slowly popping up in increasingly northerly and easterly locations as we pass through February and into March and April.

We’ve received 6 reports of common toads, but only one of common toad spawn, reported from Devon. Interestingly, the Dragon Finder App user that made this sighting was also able to spot a number of instances of a frog and toad engaged with one-another in ‘amplexus’, the act of the male using rough nuptial or ‘thumb’ pads to clasp onto the female whilst she deposits spawn. Common toads often begin to migrate to their ancestral breeding ponds from February, waiting for a comparatively warm and wet evening to do so.

Therefore, be sure to keep a keen eye out for reptiles and amphibians as the winter draws to a close and make sure to report your sightings through our free Dragon Finder App – the data we receive provides a wonderful insight into what our species are up to, as well as when and where this activity is occurring. Happy spotting!

What our animals are doing this month….

January 31, 2023 by Admin

What are our animals up to in February?

As we ‘hop’ into February common frogs are out and about spawning. Well, this winter they have already started, as the first sighting of Frogspawn was on 23^rd December in the Isles of Scilly! Mainland Britain is hot on its heels with milder spells in January creating a great opportunity for spawning.

The deep croaking is a dead giveaway of male frogs trying to attract mates. The males clasp the females in a bear hug waiting for her to spawn so he can fertilise the eggs. The result being large jelly like clumps of spawn that as they mature start to float. This is where the danger sets in as if the weather changes and the pond ices over the spawn on the top may not survive, however, spawn that is submerged has a much better chance of survival.

You can help by submitting your sightings of frogspawn and any other amphibians and reptiles to our Dragon Finder App – these records help us learn more about how our changing environment affects our species.

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Further resources:

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