Author Topic: Wildlife - toads and frogs (Read 3446 times)

Fleecewife · « **on:** January 17, 2011, 11:52:41 pm »

Now that the thick ice on our ponds has finally melted we can see uncountable numbers of toad and frog corpses of all sizes floating there. There are tiny babies and huge old grandpas, all dead. The ex-duck pond is not very deep so perhaps froze solid, but the ornamental pond is fairly deep - hopefully not all died in there and perhaps a few survived by hiding in the polytunnel.
Toads and frogs are so important to the smallholding, keeping down the slug numbers and adding to the diversity of wildlife present. Tomorrow we will have to scoop them all out.

Hardfeather · « **Reply #1 on:** January 18, 2011, 08:11:08 am »

Don't write them off just yet. Amphibians can be remarkably resilient. Some of them may recover as temperatures rise.

Fleecewife · « **Reply #2 on:** January 18, 2011, 09:03:55 am »

We will leave any which look revivable, but mostly they are blue and puffy and look totally beyond resuscitation - it's horrible.

scotelf · « **Reply #3 on:** January 18, 2011, 09:35:20 am »

Anke · « **Reply #4 on:** January 18, 2011, 06:13:47 pm »

But that's nature! After all - that's what crows and other carrion animals would eat in winter. I am sure there will be some that have survived, if not they will come and move in from somewhere else! I have a toad living in polytunnel, and thought it didn't survive last winter's severe frost, but there, late spring here s/he was - it always comes out when you least expect it (and yes I jump, it frightens the living daylight of me!)

princesspiggy · « **Reply #5 on:** January 18, 2011, 07:14:10 pm »

we had about 20 frogs under our woodpile in our garage last autumn, took the kids to take them all back to the pond. i suppose the birds will be glad of the protein. bit sad tho.

northfifeduckling · « **Reply #6 on:** January 19, 2011, 11:29:02 am »

I've not dared to have a look yet. Hope I'll find plenty once I get into the garden...

OhLaLa · « **Reply #7 on:** January 19, 2011, 12:15:21 pm »

Oh dear, very sorry to hear that.

I found this topic on another forum:

http://www.frogforum.net/general-discussion-news/1733-garden-frog-frozen-pond.html

Fleecewife · « **Reply #8 on:** January 20, 2011, 11:43:10 am »

Thank you OhLaLa

- that was very helpful and informative. So now I know that it has happened elsewhere. Sounds as if frogs and toads which hibernated out of water may have survived better. I had absolutely no idea we had so many in our ponds - in fact I didn't think there were any in the duck pond - so I didn't try to keep a hole in the ice for gas exchange. The ice was probably far too thick anyway. There are a couple of balls floating in the main pond but they were well and truly frozen in place. Haven't got round to hauling out the corpses yet but something has been removing them, so something is getting the benefit.