This is an amazing resource for looking at the impacts of a wildlife disease - it has meant we can find frog populations that we know have long histories of disease to compare with healthy populations. It seems fitting to start this blog by thanking all the pond owners who have made the research possible!
Much of our research relies on a big dataset of public disease reports which is held by a charity called Froglife. The main habitat for amphibians in the UK is private garden ponds. When people see frogs dying in their ponds, they used to get in touch with Froglife and report the deaths - more recently this information comes in via the Garden Wildlife Health project. The dataset goes back to the 1990s, and has thousands of entries. Each entry has information like the number of frogs dead, the signs of disease seen, what other species are in the pond (native species like toads and newts, and exotic species like goldfish), and what garden chemicals are used.
This is an amazing resource for looking at the impacts of a wildlife disease - it has meant we can find frog populations that we know have long histories of disease to compare with healthy populations. It seems fitting to start this blog by thanking all the pond owners who have made the research possible!
7 Comments
Andrew Norris
3/31/2017 11:58:09 am
Up to now I have had 4 frogs die with similar symptoms. They all die on their backs and have red legs after death. Death is slow and frogs appear shrunken.
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Ray O'Neile
3/19/2018 05:02:42 am
My garden pond has no frogs or spawn this year. They keep on dying
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Karen Mercer
4/20/2018 04:02:59 am
Had four frog fatalities this week. Don't know why or what to do about it. Loads of tadpoles. Help!
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Daniel smith
3/2/2019 07:58:42 am
Couple of years now frogs have dying in my garden.I put it down to the cats around,some had legs missing but not all. Purchased a cat/fox scarer and since have not seen cats or foxes but today I find 5 frogs dead no legs missing but red spots or punctures only small though on their bodies. They have been mating in my pond for a week now splashing about could they be mating to roughly to end up dying once they leave the pond ?
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5/26/2019 11:58:09 pm
I live in south east and have been finding dead frogs this morning I fished a dead frog out he looked perfectly normal no red marks or damage l think he died overnight .
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Daniel price
3/22/2020 11:53:47 am
At my local fishing lake in cherington there must be hundreds of dead frogs in tha margins it’s the first time I’ve ever seen it happen but have just talked to some one else that knows the lake and they said it has happened before many times there going white and there limbs are falling off. Very odd thing to see
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Stevie H
3/26/2020 11:29:22 pm
Kington, Powys I would like to report a similar occurence to that reported by Daniel Price. I found a good few dozen dead frogs around my pond margins. The corpses mostly falling apart appear to be eviscerated or with the skin and limbs falling away from the body, many with a bluish white hue. All seem to be in the same state of decay suggesting the deaths occured during the same period. There are still live frogs and newts in the pond along with viable frog and toad spawn.
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