Frog and Toad Tips
Spring
is here and love is in the air...
As the days get warmer, garden wildlife is gearing
up for the coming year and frogs and toads in particular are on the move,
gathering in large numbers in garden ponds across the country to do what
comes naturally; produce a new generation of amphibians. Whilst
you might want to take action and re-locate an apparent surplus of spawn or
maturing froglets, the best thing to do is leave them alone.
Contrary
to advice you may have been given in the past, this spring consider letting
nature take its course. In the case of frogs most of the spawn, tadpoles and
young froglets will be eaten by predators – everything from gold fish and
newts to garden birds – whilst others will perish if there is insufficient
food to go around. This is simply nature’s way, part of the fascinating
web of life and in this case the old adage of being cruel to be kind rings
very true.
Re-locating
can be a real problem as it can spread
disease. The fatal frog disease known as red-leg could spell disaster
for local frog populations – it has already caused wide-spread deaths in
the south of
All
of our native amphibians have been in decline in recent years, and garden
ponds are becoming increasingly important for their survival. There’s
plenty you can do to help them.
1. Make
a pond. More than 75% of ponds
were lost during the last century. The
ideal pond for amphibians should have a deep section (around 1m) for them to
hibernate in, and lots of shallow (less than 20cm deep) water for them to
spawn in. The shallow edges of a
pond encourage plants and animals to grow and colonise the pond and help
amphibians to get in and out of the pond easily. Taller, tussocky grasses
and plants around the edges will help provide shelter from predators.
Try to make sure your pond is not too close to trees and bushes, or
the leaves will clog it up in winter. Finally,
if you’re not in a clay area, use a butyl liner.
2. Don’t
put fish in your pond. Goldfish
in particular will quickly finish off tadpoles and frogspawn, whilst even
tiny sticklebacks are likely to prevent newts from breeding – if you want
a healthy population of amphibians, forget about the fish.
3. Only
use native wetland plant species. There
are lots of suitable plants that you can buy at garden centres to help stock
your pond. Particular favourites
for breeding amphibians include Water Crowfoot, Water Starwort, Water
Forget-me-not and Water Mint. Avoid non-native species as they are unlikely
to be valuable for our wildlife, and in some cases take over ponds
completely, leaving them choked up and lifeless.
Particular species to avoid include
4. Never
move spawn, tadpoles or wetland plants between ponds. You may be
transferring invasive aquatic plant species, or spreading amphibian diseases
such as red leg virus, which can wipe out entire frog populations locally.
Make a pond, and generally speaking the watery inhabitants will make their
own way to it.