Why Toads Frogs And Newts Need Our Help
In the United Kingdom today the amphibian popuation is swiftly dwindling and faces long term survival challenges of almost overwhelming proportions. The key factors lending to this decline are habitat loss, pollution and disease. Many experts concur that unless something significant is done we could see the loss of these amazing animals in our lifetime.
When i think myself back to my childhood days I recollect many a fine day as a boy with my friends at the local ponds or the brook, endless summer daytimes catching frogs and newts and sticklebacks (we always let them go!). It was a terrific childhood.
A few years ago I travelled back to the region I grew up in, in that location is now a car park where those fantastic old pools were. The brook is fouled and looked stagnant and devoid of life. These days in our over-developed urban areas such habitats are getting rarer and rarer.
The total number of habitats wasted to development has been catastrophic and irreversible. Many sites have been preserved from development by the presence of great-crested newts or natterjack toads, the rarest of our native species.
Manchester Airport was in the news lately, after work was very delayed on its third runway to rescue a great-crested newt settlement and relocate all the individuals, at a substantial cost.
Only countless thousands of ponds and waterways in the UK who did not benefit from the presence of either of these two occupants have already been developed, truly grim amounts of Newts, toads and frogs wiped out and the huge biodiversity of plants, animals and insects that lived there wiped out too.
As if this is not sufficient to deal with, the spectre of dangerous viral contagions wont go away. The frog population in the South East of the nation has already experienced devastating outbreaks of Ranavirus. A non-native amphibian species is thought to have brought Ranavirus into the United Kingdom, most probably from North America.There is no cure at present. It can also infect the Common Toad and all 3 of our newt species.
Fortuitously, the rising popularity of natural gardening techniques and practices proposes a glimmer of hope in the struggle for the future of these unreplaceable and charming animals. Although there is no defence against the Ranavirus, anyone could effectively and easily contribute to the amount of possible habitat they have. Simple to create and manage, a wildlife pool will fascinate and educate all ages and can look truly stunning.
Even the most small-scale, basic pool could be a treasure trove, plentiful in biodiversity and of interest all year round. Therefore make time for a bit of nature in your life, your kids lives. Go in the garden in the fresh air and start creating!
Mark Best writes articles that help people to make their own Pond in the Garden. If you went for it you could build a Garden Pond easily in a weekend!
