# the common frog



## repteen (Dec 4, 2006)

hi all.

just wondering if anyone on here thinks that common frogs are becoming less common.

asking this because last year, between 60-70 frogs were in our pond, and this year there were less than 30.

your opinions are appriciated: victory:


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## robje29 (Mar 10, 2007)

Well i speak for my area only, when i was but a wee boy there were millions (slight exageration!) but now there are only a handfull each year, so yes for where i live they are far less common.


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## Tort (May 20, 2006)

I am from the US of course but it is also the same way in my area. when i was little, I could go out everynight and catch 10-20 toads and I would quite often see salamanders once a week or so. Now things have changed. I see a couple of toads a year and have not seen salamanders for a few years.


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## repteen (Dec 4, 2006)

i think it's really annoying.


me and my cousin used to catch about 10 per day, and that was less than 4 years ago!!

i wish there was something we could do about it!!


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## robje29 (Mar 10, 2007)

repteen said:


> i think it's really annoying.
> 
> 
> me and my cousin used to catch about 10 per day, and that was less than 4 years ago!!
> ...


Until there is a collective will


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## Graham (Jan 27, 2007)

We used to get lots in our pond, but the last 3 or 4 years there have been fewer each year, this year there have been none at all. I notice there are many more newts though, dozens of them, and the newts eat the frogspawn, that would account for no new young frogs but I don't know where the adults have gone.


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## repteen (Dec 4, 2006)

i wish we had newts in our pond-i have never seen wild newts


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## redeyedanny (Feb 16, 2007)

i had this dicusion some threads ago. they are getting rarer, we did have a toad in our garage called percy over xmas. they shouldnt be called 'common' frogs and toads though!


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## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

I think they are certainly becoming rarer in urban areas, but hopefully numbers are still growing in rural areas - the problem is that more and more of the country becomes urban every year, and it is a fact of life that ALL wild animals are going to be seriously affected by this.

Except squirrels, that seem to be multiplying.. i live in the middle of the city and saw about 20 squirrels just walking 15 mins to work this morning through the park


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## robje29 (Mar 10, 2007)

Athravan said:


> I think they are certainly becoming rarer in urban areas, but hopefully numbers are still growing in rural areas - the problem is that more and more of the country becomes urban every year, and it is a fact of life that ALL wild animals are going to be seriously affected by this.
> 
> Except squirrels, that seem to be multiplying.. i live in the middle of the city and saw about 20 squirrels just walking 15 mins to work this morning through the park


I live in the countryside, more likley to find hens teeth than an abundance of frogs or toads here...


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## repteen (Dec 4, 2006)

it's not right.

what will future generations try to catch each year??


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## Tort (May 20, 2006)

no kidding! that how I got interested in reptile and amphibians in the first place when I was little.


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## BELIAL (Nov 10, 2006)

they are indeed getting rarer..is due to a confusing climate and the fact that many of their environment are being paved over for new housing developments. the humble pond is also going slowly out of fashion which means the unrbanised frog is sadly on the the decline.

this is not just limited to the frog though. our native species of newt are also on the decline. they require ponds that tend to dry up in the summer in order to breed. natural ponds that have water all year round often have fish which eat the young newts...sadly these smaller ponds are just not as common as they once were. they then also have to turn to man made ponds but as above these are no longer as 'fashionable' as they once were.

there has actually been a lot of research done into the subject by various preservation groups in the uk..your local council can put you in touch with one in your area.

we need to do something to help our indigenous amphibians and one thing we can do is build more 'wild' ponds. keep the goldfish out and put the amphibs in!


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## repteen (Dec 4, 2006)

i've got a wildlife pond in our garden.

no matter how much frogsporn i put in, i only have one animal living there- a wonderfuly coloured frog. nothing else goes in there


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## BELIAL (Nov 10, 2006)

maybe there is something wrong with the water? 

'wildlife' ponds are very fragile and it does not take much to mess up the ecosystem. this is best started off with things like canadian pond weed and plantlife from an estabilished pond. this gives you the bottom layer..

larger insect life can then be introduced such as pond skimmer, mayfly larvae, dragonfly larvae, bloodworms etc

this will turn help keep the larger amphibian life. sometimes though it just doesn't work! i used to have two ponds. one was full of 'edible' frogs, dragonflies, great diving beetles, newts and the other only had some stickleback in and that was about it! i tried everything with the barren one but all to no avail!


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## robje29 (Mar 10, 2007)

BELIAL said:


> maybe there is something wrong with the water?
> 
> 'wildlife' ponds are very fragile and it does not take much to mess up the ecosystem. this is best started off with things like canadian pond weed and plantlife from an estabilished pond. this gives you the bottom layer..
> 
> ...


Your other pond with stickleback is the reason it did not flourish, fish and wildlife ponds do not mix!


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## BELIAL (Nov 10, 2006)

i know but they were cool! and they are also getting rarer...


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## Graham (Jan 27, 2007)

Well I'm in a suburban area, which is actually far more rural than suburban, I'm just a few feet from a river (Thames), with a fishing lake behind and a farm at the end of the road, more like a small rural village. 
I have two ponds, soon to be three, and the newts thrive in the big one despite the 30 or so fish, we have all the usual pond wildlife, several grass snakes living around the garden, birds, foxes etc..., but the frogs just seem to have disappeared this year.
We go on holiday late February-early March, and when we return the frogs are always at it and the pond full of frogspawn, but not any more it seems. The newts are great, fascinating creatures, but I'd like to see the frogs back sometime soon. I've even tried importing hundreds of tads from friend's ponds but never see a single froglet!


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## skimpy (Nov 22, 2006)

robje29 said:


> Well i speak for my area only, when i was but a wee boy there were millions (slight exageration!) but now there are only a handfull each year, so yes for where i live they are far less common.


 
Good point! I remember collecting tadpoles and keeping them in a bucket on the doorstep. always used to get loads, and let them go when the legs started developing. Kids dont seem to do this now...


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## robje29 (Mar 10, 2007)

skimpy said:


> Good point! I remember collecting tadpoles and keeping them in a bucket on the doorstep. always used to get loads, and let them go when the legs started developing. Kids dont seem to do this now...


Maybe it is because there are none for them to do it with


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## skimpy (Nov 22, 2006)

robje29 said:


> Maybe it is because there are none for them to do it with


 
Maybe. We were kids, and we did put them back. it was just interesting watching them


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## Graham (Jan 27, 2007)

Many years ago when I lived with my parents we had a cat who one year "collected" loads of froglets. I heard her howling at the back door and when I looked out she was sitting next to a puddle full of maybe a dozen 1" froglets, then she went off and came back a few minutes later carrying another one very carefully in her mouth!
She kept doing this (I have no idea where she found them) until there were about 20, then she just sat there watching them, flipping them back into the puddle with a paw if they tried to escape!
She was always a wierd cat, but that had to be the strangest thing I ever saw her do!


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## tokay (Mar 13, 2007)

well this year ive counted around 12 frogs in my pond and 4 newts too  last year it was nearly double the amount of frogs in there  
i took a few photos of them this year


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## tombraider (May 6, 2006)

We get hundreds of frogs round here but ive not see a wild newt in over 20 years


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## salad dodger (Feb 13, 2007)

as a kid i used to go to our local pond & catch 8 or 10 newts & put em in a big pond in our back garden every couple of months . but that prob caused their decline . i havent seen any crested or smooth for 5 or 6 years back at "home" (parents) but as for frogs !!!!!!!! my dads entire collection of koi was wiped out 3 years ago by frogs "shagging" their heads & clamping their gills closed . this year theres just as many frogs , sat afternoon i counted more than 40 & the pond is only 12' x 3' . the balls of spawn were like footballs & lots of em


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## intravenous (Dec 20, 2006)

salad dodger said:


> frogs "shagging" their heads


Sorry, that made me laugh:lol2:.

Pretty cool pictures to whoever it was though, I wish we had that many frogs. I think we only get 3 each year.


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## LeeH (Jan 26, 2005)

one of only ones i saw last year(BTW i released it in an area away from any roads near a pond teeming with insects and stuff good for frogs after taking this pic)


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## repteen (Dec 4, 2006)

last year, you couldn't see the fish, there was that many tadpoles!! this year, i'm certain our koi has eaten all of the tads.


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## repteen (Dec 4, 2006)

well, i can't find the pics

what type of pond do newts live in??


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## Graham (Jan 27, 2007)

> what type of pond do newts live in??


Well ours is an ordinary butyl lined garden pond, 4m diameter and nearly 1m deep in the middle, marginals and bog plants all around the edges, and water lilies in the deeper water. At the moment I'd estimate there are at least 35-40 newts in there, F to M ratio about 5:1.
But we also had a small plastic tub in the garden that we kept pond plants in while we were re-lining the big pond, and the newts found their way in there and bred too! 
I think basically it just has to have enough plants (they lay eggs singly on leaves, then fold the leaf in half to protect it) and not too many predators, although our newts don't seem to find the 30 or so goldfish and 3 small Koi too much of a problem.


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## repteen (Dec 4, 2006)

we won't get any newts then!!
we have a huge koi called hoover-his mouth is about 1.5cm's wide:lol2:


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## repteen (Dec 4, 2006)

any other thoughts...???


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## debbieVN (Mar 20, 2007)

common frogs and newts are actually listed as dangered species, crested newts specially. you can be fined up to a grand per egg if you destroy them or the their habitat! i used to have a wildlife pond in my last garden as they would get eaten in the fish pond by the carp.


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