Citizen Science Monitoring

Garden Dragon Watch

By Amy Harrison - Species Team Placement Intern & Dr Rob Ward - Database & GIS Officer

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.

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!

Team Toad!

By Yvette Martin - Amphibian Conservation Officer

ARC is very lucky in that we have a large number of very dedicated volunteers who carry out a mixture of habitat management tasks and species survey work. Habitat management tasks go ahead regardless of the weather and our volunteers are outside come rain or shine. Species surveys are usually carried out during the day but for some of the more rare species, surveys need to be carried out at night.

It is often quite difficult to find volunteers who are happy and willing to carry out night-time surveys, Regena Coult is one volunteer who stands out. Keen to gain further information about the status of natterjack toads at a small site in Surrey, Regena set herself the task of identifying every animal within the population. Using a method of Capture, Mark, Recapture, Regena has completed numerous night-time searches over the past 3 years, often staying out until the early hours of the morning. The data captured by Regena opened up new knowledge about how natterjack toads are using the site and just how many animals are present in the population. It might sound simple but where populations are small and sites are large it can take a lot of time to find and identify individual animals.

Regena’s persistence with data collection and dedication to the project are truly inspirational but she did not stop there. Keen to help with natterjack conservation efforts, Regena most recently volunteered to support the digitisation of historic natterjack data. Historic data digitisation is an issue that many NGOs struggle with, but it is an important issue to address because it can be difficult to quantify declines or increases in the range and distribution of a species without the digitisation of historic data. ARC would like to take this opportunity to thank Regena for all of the hours she has put in to supporting our conservation efforts both in the field and at home.

If you are interested in finding out about volunteer opportunities at ARC, please visit www.arc-trust.org/ Listing/Category/volunteer. If you would like to help with the digitisation of historic natterjack toad data please contact me at Yvette.martin@arc-trust.org.

ARC Volunteers in the Spotlight

A look at some of ARC’s volunteers and their invaluable contributions. Regena Coult

Started volunteering with ARC: 2018 Favourite natterjack toad: Hamdah stands out simply because she is so massive (80mm, 90g!)

Regena is a regular and popular face on the ARC habitat management volunteer circuit in the Weald. Over the last three years she has also committed to an immersive and intimate relationship with the activities of the elusive natterjack toad. Often found on a dark warm spring night, with torch in hand, Regena shines a light on the noisy romancing of the UK’s rarest amphibian.

Her dedication to the collection of data on this species is nothing short of remarkable. On the site Regena monitors in Surrey, there resides a population of toads which have been identified and named individually. It takes a very keen eye to master this skill, and in return provides that extra level of understanding how individuals utilise their territory and as a population.

Regena has also volunteered her time to digitise a huge amount of historical natterjack data, the importance of which should not be underestimated. The data is now easily accessible and will assist with assessing declines, increases, distribution and range across the years in much more detail than ever before.