Scientifically there is no real distinction between frogs & toads. ‘Frog’ relates to the movement of hopping and this creature spends considerable time in the water while Toads walk or crawl and only enter it to breed. Frogs behaviour patterns have been taken to indicate weather patterns, a bright healthy skin suggesting fine weather and dull sheen the opposite in the form of rain. If spawn was laid at the edge of ponds, it was considered an indication of storms while spawn found in the middle meant possible drought conditions. There are lots of folklore around these amphibians, mainly used as medicinal remedies, food, and other strange rituals too. To find a frog inside your house was seen as as as a bad omen and frog parts were sometimes used as a talisman. However, let’s look at our living breathing pond and its watery residents.
Saintbridge Pond (and the nearby allotment) was most impressive for common frog (Rana temporaria)! Not only the best location I’ve visited in Gloucester, but the quantities of spawn were among the largest I’ve seen anywhere, ever. Around 200 clumps. Saintbridge has, around its fringes, excellent habitat for breeding frogs. They need long grass/rushes and other low-level vegetation plus logs and objects to hide in/under, plus clean, shallow, still and fish-free areas of water to breed in. It’s hard to think of an animal with a greater range/volume of enemies than the common frog – many invertebrates, birds, mammals, reptiles, and even other amphibians prey upon it from the moment the egg is laid and throughout every stage of the rest of its life. It has no skin toxins, sting, claws, beak, or other weaponry to fight back with and even lacks teeth. Instead, it deploys a passive resistance strategy – hopping away from a threat or hiding still and out of sight in vegetation, etc. The ‘Ghandi frog’
For your interest here are my 2020 sightings (so far). Numbers of spawn clumps (in brackets below) are, of course, experience-led estimates. Since it quickly swells with water losing definition and blending as one, the fresher the spawn, the more accurate the estimate. I’ve only given grid references for your site – Saintbridge Pond, but happy to supply the ones for the nearby allotments if requested.
The following observations have been submitted to the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust via their ‘Record Pool’ for verification. After which they’ll be passed to GCER (Glos Environmental Records Centre).
7/3/20 Frogspawn (20) Saintbridge Pond SO 84931670 7/3/20 Frogspawn (120) Saintbridge Pond SO 85041670 7/3/20 Frogspawn (60) Saintbridge Pond SO 85001163 7/3/20 Smooth newt adult female (1) Under a piece of wood, bank side, Saintbridge Pond SO 84951160
Grass snakes pass through the site sometimes too. The bank at the back of the allotments looks a great ‘wildlife corridor’.
What Is the Purpose of Wildlife Corridors?
A wildlife corridor, also known as a habitat or green corridor, is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations that would otherwise be separated by human activities or structures such as roads, other infrastructure development, or logging and farming.
What is a wildlife corridor?
Practically speaking, a wildlife corridor is a link of wildlife habitat, generally made up of native vegetation, which joins two or larger areas of similar wildlife habitat.
Wildlife corridors play a very important role in maintaining connections between animal and plant populations that would otherwise be isolated and therefore at greater risk of local extinction. Providing physical connections between larger areas of habitat means that wildlife corridors enable migration, colonization, and interbreeding of plants and animals.
Wildlife corridors come in many forms as they need to be adapted to local circumstances and be designed around specific habitats. As such, wildlife corridors can consist of a sequence of small patches across the landscape or continuous lineal strips of vegetation and habitat [2].
The main purpose of wildlife corridors is therefore to increase biodiversity by reconnecting areas of fragmented land or parts of the aquatic environment and thereby contributing to stabilizing species populations.
Why are wildlife corridors important?
Populations of plants, animals and other species benefit from wildlife corridors as they open up new areas for finding food and shelter; seasonal relocation becomes more safe and effective since the routes are not exposed to human activity and small populations can be united with others of the same kind to breed [1].
Wildlife corridors offer a holistic approach for protecting and managing ecosystems and optimizing connectivity between habitats. Human activity and intervention in our natural environment leave fragmented patches of intact or relatively intact ecosystems whose ties with others are severed.
If human activities continue in the area, those islands of biodiversity become even smaller and grow further apart putting the ecosystems at risk. This ultimately leads to a break down in the various ecological processes such as species migration, recycling of nutrients, pollination of plants, and other natural functions required for ecosystem health. As a result, the habitat will suffer severe biodiversity decline and local extinction of sensitive species.
Garden Dragon Watch is ARC’s garden herpetofauna (reptile and amphibian) survey. Gardens can provide important habitats for reptiles and amphibians. We want to find out more about the reptiles and amphibians that people find in their gardens and how many gardens have the habitat that benefits them. Are gardens in some parts of the UK especially rich in amphibians and reptiles?
By taking part, you can help us gather the information that will inform our conservation work and the advice that we give that helps amphibians and reptiles. Exploring your garden to learn more about the wildlife that lives there is fun and you don’t need a lot of time to do our survey.
What’s in your garden? How to do the survey
Simply spend a few minutes carefully looking in your garden and tell us about your garden and what you find by filling in the form below. If you are using a mobile device, or the form below does not load correctly, please click here to open a standalone form. You can download a guide at the top of this article.
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