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The Froglife team are really excited about our brand new website, which will now be home to our Croaks news feed.

The colourful, interactive and easy to use Froglife website has been designed by local Peterborough company Paper Rhino, and we’re thrilled with it!  Keep an eye for new developments as we add more interactive tools and content over the coming months.

Croaks, our e-news bulletins about our work, amphibians, reptiles, outdoor education and other relevant topics, will be hosted here.  Anyone who has subscribed to receive Croaks in their inbox will continue to do so, but hosting them on the main site makes things much easier for us to manage.

To celebrate the new site, we are also running a Drawing Dragons poster competition throughout October.  Open to anyone under 18, we will be sending Froglife goody bags to our favourite posters in three age categories (age 6 and under, 7 to 12 and 13 to 18 year old).  Find out more about the competition here.

Thank you for following Croaks and here’s to more exciting news from Froglife soon.

.Wildlife conservation charity Froglife has received exciting news that The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded a grant of £422,400 for Scottish Dragon Finder.  This exciting new project will directly involve 28,000 people in conserving Scotland’s amphibian and reptile species, with activities taking place all over the country in the next four and a half years.

There are ten native amphibian and reptile species in Scotland, seven of which feature as priority species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. There is an urgent need for more data on where the animals are and their populations, with current evidence suggesting the creatures are in decline.  Dragon Finder will introduce thousands of new people to the intriguing lives of amphibians and reptiles, teaching them how to survey, record and protect these amazing animals.

Colin McLean, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Scotland, said:

“This year, the Year of Natural Scotland, brings into focus the natural beauty and biodiversity that surrounds us. It is one of our greatest national assets, attracting visitors from home and abroad and making a valuable contribution to our tourist economy.

“We have some incredible native wildlife in Scotland but our species and habitats are under constant threat. Recent reports such as State of Nature and the Scottish Government’s 2020 Challenge for Scotland’s Biodiversity plan highlight the need to act now if we are to protect it. We hope that with the Heritage Lottery Fund support announced today, communities across the country will be inspired and empowered to safeguard the existence of these rare creatures.”

Scottish Dragon Finder will involve communities, school children, gardeners and hill walkers in improving fresh-water ponds across 14 local authority areas, identifying and recording the current amphibians and reptile populations and in learning activities to raise awareness of the endangered species and the role they play in the country’s biodiversity.  It is an expansion of London Dragon Finder, which has been running in the City for just under a year.

Kathy Wormald, Froglife’s CEO added:

“We are thrilled to be bringing our innovative Dragon Finder project to Scotland.  We will be introducing people who have never seen these animals before to the wonders on their doorstep, and encouraging those who spend a lot of time outdoors to let us know when they see amphibians and reptiles through our free app.  We’ll be hosting some really creative educational activities and hosting trainee placements, alongside work to create and restore habitats across Scotland.”

Ron Macdonald, Scottish Natural Heritage’s Head of Policy and Advice was just as excited with the good news for the nation’s wildlife:

“We look forward to supporting Froglife in this great opportunity for the conservation of amphibians and reptiles across Scotland.”

• Find out more about Froglife’s Dragon Finder project at the Living Atlas website here, where you can also download the free app

• Learn more about Froglife’s work in Scotland at the Froglife website here

• Help co-fund Froglife’s work and enable us to restore even more habitats by donating to the Save our Dragons appeal and texting NEWT13 followed by a donation of £2-10 to 70070

Photo: Dave Kilbey

Froglife is celebrating the first year of our London Dragon Finder project this October, with a huge amount achieved time by our hard working team.  Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and a number of other funders, this innovative project takes a fun and inclusive approach to conserving reptiles and amphibians in the Capital.

The project runs for another 3 years, and we are already well on our way to our ambitious targets.  Here are some of the highlights from our first year:

Life Under the Surface

These art and craft based sessions inspire school children and families to explore the amazing world that can be found under the surface of a pond.  By making giant pond creatures and setting them up in an installation for visitors to walk through and explore, the young people learn about the lifecycles and ecology of different pond creatures, including frogs, toads and newts.  Working with a range of partners all over the city, we have involved 1386 people in our educational Life Under the Surface sessions.  This includes 36 sessions with 735 pupils from 19 schools, 36 teachers and 203 families.

Habitat Restoration, Creation and Training

To benefit amphibians, reptiles and other wildlife, we have so far created or restored 8 ponds at 4 sites, with a lot more taking off in the next few weeks.  We have run practical habitat work sessions for 32 new volunteers, 2 sessions for young offenders and run practical projects for 21 people experiencing social exclusion through mental ill health or significant illness.  To up-skill people to continue to look after habitats and survey for reptiles and amphibians, we have trained 206 new Dragon Finders through 14 courses across London.

Dragon Days

Local parks, nature reserves and green spaces are vital hubs not only for people to enjoy but to ensure that London’s wildlife has a home too.  Dragon Days are special open days celebrating the amazing sites we are working on and introducing people to the creatures that can be found there, and so far we have organised 9 family-friendly events, which have attracted 1,753 people.

Swimming with Dragons

This was one of the most exciting and challenging ideas in the project; to run learning sessions helping people understand amphibian life cycles and pond habitats through sessions in swimming pools.  We have run Froglife’s first ever Swimming with Dragons session, with more planned this year and over the course of the project.  We are also planning to run sessions in the East of England through our River Nene Dragon Finder project.

Wildlife Workshops

In an urban setting, allotments and gardens are incredibly important for wildlife.  So far, Froglife has run 5 Wildlife Workshops for 45 gardeners and allotment holders; helping them to understand the benefits of making space for local wildlife and garden in a way that will help the animals to thrive.  With Slow-Worms, Common Toads and Common Frogs great garden pest controllers, it’s a win-win situation!

Audio-Visual Living Atlas and App

We have a new area of the Froglife website dedicated to Dragon Finder, where you can find out about the project, events and training, discover more about the wildlife and share your own memories and stories about encounters with wildlife in the city.  The  Living Atlas is an evolving resource, and  we also created a free smartphone app, enabling people on iPhone, Android and via a mobile website to feed in their sightings of reptiles and amphibians to help us map where they can be found and identify key habitat sites.

There is still plenty of time for you to get involved in London Dragon Finder, join us Under the Surface, Swimming with Dragons, and become a Dragon Finder yourself.  You can find out all about it at the Living Atlas website here