In the Field By hook or by Crook(sbury) By Ralph Connolly - Weald Field Officer & Volunteer Coordinator If you came to the virtual Friends’ Day this year, you will have seen footage of the natterjack toad ponds on ARC’s Crooksbury Common site and the quite specific open habitat requirements of this endangered species. The natterjack population on Crooksbury is small and doesn’t breed every year but last year we were delighted to record three distinct spawning events. Unfortunately as our climate changes, the increasingly long drought periods we are experiencing can have drastic consequences for natterjacks. Many of the shallow, warm pools that they favour for spawning are drying out too quickly to enable them to complete their metamorphosis from tadpole to toadlet. All three spawnings on Crooksbury required intervention by licensed ARC staff to top up the water levels or translocate the tadpoles to one of the larger ponds onsite and in one case the tadpoles were lost. To counteract this, the three smallest saucer-shaped ponds have been skilfully re-profiled by one of our contractors with a small excavator. This will increase their capacity whilst retaining the gentle sloping sides which maximise the amount of shallow warm water for natterjacks to develop quickly in. We have also fitted the ponds with liners to further improve their water retention and were generously supported in this by funding from the Surrey Amphibian and Reptile Group.
In the Field
Monitoring of the ponds by ARC staff and volunteers will continue over the coming years and hopefully we will be seeing natterjack toadlets scrambling out next summer!
8
Photo top left: 4 legged natterjack tadpole. Bottom: Excavator re-profiling pool © Ralph Connolly (ARC).
