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Croaking Science: In spitting distance – Snake Tales

December 11, 2013 by admin

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.

Becky Austin our Croaking Science Volunteer, has a close encounter with the Mozambique spitting cobra

On a recent university field trip to South Africa I had my first close encounter with a dangerous wild snake – an unforgettable experience! We were walking through the bush when our guide shouted “everybody stop moving!” The shocked silence that ensued was filled with an angry hissing noise, then no more than two metres in front of us there it was: a Mozambique spitting cobra. Its hood was fanned and its head reared in defence, before the metre long snake shot down its hole to safety.

Mozambique spitting cobras are one of the most dangerous snakes in Africa. As their name suggests, they can spit their venom in defence, at targets as far away as 2-3 metres! Luckily for us the snake we encountered did not spit – a direct hit to the eyes causes excruciating pain and permanent blindness if not treated quickly.

How do spitting cobras spit so far? When their venom glands contract, a small amount is excreted at high pressure down through channels in their fangs and out through a hole. The holes are at the front of the fangs, so the venom is propelled out of the mouth of the cobra at a right angle instead of straight down, for a direct hit to the eyes.

Link through to Arkive for images of Mozambique spitting cobras.

There are only three species of snake in England: the smooth snake, grass snake, and adder. Only the adder is venomous and can inject venom into a victim through its fangs while biting. Luckily adders are shy creatures, who have only bitten people rarely, in self defence and there have been no fatalities for many years. However our three gentle snake species are now unfortunately under threat from continual loss of habitat.

What can you do to help?

Froglife is always keen to know when a snake has been spotted, so if you see one, we want to hear about it! This helps to build a picture of how snakes are faring in the UK. You can also make your garden more snake friendly in a number of easy ways – take a look at our wildlife gardening section to find out more:

References:

Westhoff, G., Tzschatzsch, K. And Bleckmann, H. (2005). The spitting behaviour of two species of spitting cobras. Journal of Comparative Physiology, vol.191, 10: pp.873-881

Super volunteer wins green award

December 11, 2013 by admin

Froglife volunteer Ash Jarvis has scooped a prestigious award for her hard work as a Wildlife Ambassador. Ash has volunteered over 500 hours of her time with the us, starting out on the project funded by Access to Nature two years ago. On Monday, she was recognised for her commitment and won Best Volunteer at the Peterborough Telegraph Green Awards.

“I really wasn’t expecting my name to be uttered when a representative of Prince Energy was announcing the winner of my category. I was so surprised and pleased when he did though!” said Ash. “It felt good to be rewarded for the work I’d been doing at Froglife and the award will be hung on the wall once I’ve moved into my new home. A really nice end to the year.”

The awards were hosted by Rachel Huxley from Peterborough Environment City Trust, and Ash’s Award was sponsored by Prince Energy.

Ash and her award

Ash and her certificate

Ash with Prince Energy and Rachel

Ash with the team from Prince Energy and Rachel Huxley from PECT

“Ash is a great volunteer, she’s just so good at inspiring other people, ” added Sam Taylor from Froglife. “Nothing is too much trouble and she has got stuck in to so many weird and wonderful things, from dressing up as a frog to digging a pond, talking to children about snakes or getting covered in mud!”

Ash was among a host of winners at the awards including Cuckoos Hollow, a local green space where Froglife has helped to create a wildlife inspired mural and Railworld, who’s wildlife haven is a stunning secret spot right next to the river. There were also some fantastic finalists, including the Green Backyard where Ash and other volunteers created a pond.

All in all, the awards night was inspiring and highlighted the hard work going on all over the city to help local wildlife. Congratulations to Ash, the winners and finalists and everyone else involved.

You can see a short video from the awards and read about the other winners at the Peterborough Telegraph website here.

Tell us your thoughts and win over £50 worth of prizes!

December 3, 2013 by admin

What do you think about frogs? Do snakes scare you or do you love them?

Froglife is undertaking a national survey to find out more about what people think about amphibians and reptiles as part of a new project to boost appreciation of our wildlife.

Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Scale of the Problem project is designed to get to the bottom of how we all view frogs, snakes, newts, toads, newts and lizards to help find exciting new ways to encourage people to care about these often forgotten animals. Froglife is undertaking an online survey, asking people on the street and running focus groups, with the results to be analysed by marking company Emerald Frog.

Everyone taking part in the survey (either online or through the vox pops and focus groups) will be entered into a prize draw for two special boxes of goodies.

adult prize for web

The prize winner in the over 18 category will receive:

A Frederick Frog velvet and brocade paperweight
A Lionel Armstrong frog doorstop, dressed in a smart jacket
A year’s supply of 13 Froglife greetings cards
A Froglife bamboo USB drive
Copies of Froglife’s Just Add Water, Urban Tails and My Wild Life booklets and the My Wild Life DVD

kids prize for web

The winner of the under 18 prize draw will receive:

A cuddly Lionel Jnr frog
A pond dipping kit, perfect for learning more about the creatures under the water
A cute frog back pack
A handy frog umbrella for rainy days
Copies of Froglife’s Just Add Water, Urban Tails and My Wild Life booklets and the My Wild Life DVD

You can take part in the online survey here.

Make sure to complete your contact details to be entered into the draw. Winners will be drawn on the 12^th of March 2014.

The survey asks about your thoughts on wildlife, giving to charity and has a bit of an ID quiz.

We look forward to hearing hearing all your opinions!

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

November 27, 2013 by admin

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.

Share your stories about our species and instil a love for them in your family so that they are valued and protected for generations to come .

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

November 18, 2013 by admin

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]

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

November 14, 2013 by admin

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

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