Citizen Science & Monitoring Garden Dragon Watch By Amy Harrison - Species Team Placement Intern & Dr Rob Ward - Database & GIS Officer
Citizen Science & Monitoring
In the last issue of Hop Gossip! we brought you news of the launch of our Garden Dragon Watch Survey. The data collected by Garden Dragon Watch will help ARC to find out more about the reptiles and amphibians that people find in their gardens and the habitats that benefit them. This will help inform our conservation work and the advice that we give to households, in both rural and urban communities, that provide a home for amphibians and reptiles.
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Since we went live we have seen a great number of entries from across the UK. With most of the country being restricted to staying at home during the pandemic, many of us have only had our gardens as a green space to explore, so spotting your residential amphibians, lizards and snakes may have become a lockdown pastime. At the close of 2020 ARC has had a total number of 780 records submitted to Garden Dragon Watch, with a total of 1,668 animals spotted (not counting all the tadpoles!) The most common species that was spotted was the common frog (Rana temporaria), with 193 sightings. Coming in second place with 109 counts is the smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) and third is the slow worm (Anguis fragilis) with 89 counts. All the species numbers can be found on the Garden Dragon Watch page on our website https://www.arctrust.org/garden-dragon-watch. With Spring just around the corner, it won’t be long before our gardens come alive again. Keep your records coming in and if you haven’t signed up yet, give it a go! You can find out how to take part on the website using the link above. We are aiming to fill in any blank spaces on the map. Areas such as northern England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are in need of filling up, so let your friends know, get involved and start recording! Photo top right: Common frog © Alison Copeland, Middle left: Smooth newt, Bottom right: Slow worm © Chris Dresh (ARC).
