2017 taddies

Hi Tom

Yes - I thought the croc would be appreciated! It does seem strange regarding toad numbers but various possibilities come to mind. Firstly, of course, the numbers seen when migrating to breeding ponds can be enormous but thereafter they disperse far and wide and generally lead a rather secretive life - probably only counts of ALL breeding aggregations would come close to finding the total number of adult toads.
The tads tend to be safer than other amphibian larvae (mine actually share this pond with ravenous goldfish yet metamorphose in huge numbers). But new metamorphs right up to adults do seem to have far more predators than one might think. In my area, grassies regard them a a staple for example!
Finally, of course, like most amphibians they suffer from habitat destruction, loss of breeding ponds and so on.
So far as retirement as sand lizard captive breeding programme co-ordinator is concerned, this was last year. I reached 70 and have severe circulation problems in my legs which actually means that nowadays it is, at best, difficult (if not impossible!) to reach even my local colonies. Coupled with after some 20 years of being "Mr Sand Lizard" in Wales, albeit from 250 miles away, we (i.e. ARC) now have Mandy Cartwright in North Wales and Mark Barber & Pete Hill in South Wales - and they are all great!
All the best
Chris

Having been gently told off for lack of input here's a quick snap from my garden today.



Swarming toad taddies in my main garden pond - this is an approx 1 foot long section of a 10ft length of south facing edge which had this sort of densities throughout its entire length.

In the enlargement below apart from the giveway black colouration you can also see a couple of individuals more or less central together with one at far left who are helpfully laying on their sides and showing the rounded tail ends off (rather than brownish with pointed tail ends for common frogs)

PS - that's a very rare breed of resin crocodile of course!!

Chris


Edited by Iowarth - 20 Apr 2017 at 1:53pm