Bits for Pets Blog

Randy toads are being killed in their thousands as they search for their dream partner.

And animal lovers are now setting up a toad lollipop crossing brigade to try to save the creatures.

Amorous amphibians go looking for love at this time of year but vast numbers end up getting squashed under car wheels in the process.

Volunteer patrols are helping the creatures cross roads in safety and wildlife campaigners have pleaded with motorists to stop the courting carnage.

Trevor Weeks, founder of East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service, explained hundreds of thousands of toads in the UK cross roads to reach their spawning grounds.

As the ground temperature warms up and the land becomes wetter, loved-up toads come out of hiding and hop across roads looking for a date.

They typically start moving at night when it is damp but not too cold for them.

Male toads often sit on the warm road surfaces and wait for females to hop on their backs and be carried to water.

Mr Weeks explained the problem of toads getting run over was having a major impact on their populations.

One of the danger toad spots is the Litlington and Exceat road near Seaford where hundreds cross from the forest to the flood plains of the Cuckmere River.

Mr Weeks said: “I’ve been doing toad patrols since the early 1990s and when I first started it was estimated that over 10,000 toads cross the Litlington to Exceat road every year.

“However, now the numbers seem to be a lot smaller, probably less than 2,000, but it is difficult to tell.

“Every year thousands are killed on our roads by motorists who probably don’t even notice they are there as they are so small, it is not like they are the size of a fox or badger.”

The East Sussex Wildlife and Rescue Service has joined people from other organisations, including the Sussex Amphibian Reptile Group, to form a toad lollipop crossing brigade.

Mr Weeks said: “Our rescuers will join other volunteers to spend some time helping to pick up and move some of these toads out of the roads to stop them from being run over.

“There is little which can be done to stop them or help prevent them from being killed on the roads, apart from rolling up your sleeves and physically moving them.”

Villagers from Lytlington are going out nightly in Wellington boots, armed with torches and buckets to move the amphibians.

They have also made safety signs warning car drivers of the toad road invasion.

East Sussex County Council has some warning road signs at crossing spots.

Mr Weeks asked motorists to slow down if they see a toad sign, take care and try and avoid killing them if possible.

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A virgin birth is expected this Christmas, though this particular nativity scene will be set in a zoo instead of a stable.

That’s because the virgin in question is Flora the Komodo dragon, a giant lizard at Chester Zoo in England that has laid fertile eggs despite never having had a mate.

DNA tests confirmed Flora was the sole parent, says Chester Zoo curator of lower vertebrates Kevin Buley.

“Essentially what we have here is an immaculate conception,” he said, adding that the eggs could hatch as soon as Christmas.

“We will be on the look-out for shepherds, wise men, and an unusually bright star in the skyover Chester Zoo,” he joked.

Flora, along with another female Komodo dragon from the London Zoo, represent the first known cases of virgin birth in the world’s largest lizard, according to researchers.

The two reptiles are examples of a process called parthenogenesis, in which offspring are produced without fertilization by a male, according to a report in the current issue of the journal Nature.

Single-parent reproduction is hardly ever seen in such complex animals, having been documented in just 0.1 percent of vertebrates, the study team says.

The finding that Komodo dragons are capable of self-fertilization may open the way for many more such discoveries in other animals, says team member Richard Gibson, curator of herpetology at the London Zoo.

Virgin birth, he says, is “considered a very rare phenomenon, but the fact that we’ve got these two lizards suggests it’s not as rare as we thought. We recorded it in two unrelated females within the space of a year in two different collections.”

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A freshwater dolphin found only in China is “effectively extinct”, an expedition has declared following a fruitless six-week search.

The Yangtze River dolphin, or baiji, was listed as “critically endangered” on the Red List of Threatened Species.

It has been dying out due to habitat degradation, overfishing, pollution and ship traffic - which confounds the sonar the animal uses to find food.

Zoologists announced a plan to save the mammal earlier this year.

“We have to accept the fact that the baiji is extinct. We lost the race,” said August Pfluger, co-head of the expedition and director of baiji.org, an environmental group dedicated to saving the animal.

“It is a tragedy, a loss not only for China, but for the entire world,” he added.

Mr Pfluger admitted it was possible that animals had been missed despite the use of optical and acoustic equipment and trained observers.

The baiji lives along the lower reaches of China’s environmentally-degraded Yangtze River and is thought to have been in existence for about 20 million years.

If confirmed, it would be the first large aquatic mammal driven to extinction since hunting and overfishing killed off the Californian monk seal in the 1950s.

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Close monitoring and rapid, targeted vaccinations may be the best way to protect the Ethiopian wolf, the world’s rarest canine, against extinction.

Scientists suggest that immunizing just 30 percent of the wolf population at the first sign of an outbreak is sufficient to safeguard the endangered species from major outbreaks of rabies and other deadly diseases.

Only about 500 Ethiopian wolves remain in the wild, and the species has been ravaged by rabies epidemics at least twice in the recent past. But completely immunizing all of those animals is too time-consuming, given current technology.

The new study shows that even limited immunizations of wild canine species such as the Ethiopian wolf against rabies is “safe and effective,” said lead author Dan Haydon, an ecologist and epidemiologist at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. “[That is] something that’s not always been agreed upon in the conservation community,” Haydon added.

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UK conservationists are celebrating a successful summer for a rare butterfly, which went locally extinct in 1979.

An estimated 10,000 large blue butterflies have been recorded at sites across southern England - the largest number for at least 60 years.

Efforts to rebuild the population have been underway since 1983, when Swedish caterpillars were introduced to the UK.

Experts hope the project will show that such programmes can help other species threatened with extinction.

More than 150 scientists, conservationists and volunteers have been involved in the Large Blue Project, a partnership of 11 organisations, co-ordinated by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

Dave Simcox, manager of the project, said there was still more work to be done.

“Whilst one landscape in Somerset is reasonable secure, the real challenge is to replicate this success throughout the Cotswolds, South Devon, and the Atlantic coasts of Devon and Cornwall,” he explained.

Dr Nigel Bourn, director of species conservation at Butterfly Conservation, said it offered hope for other threatened species.

“Given the proper resources, we can restore a countryside full of butterflies and other wildlife,” he said.

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The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has today reported that birds of prey have been deliberately killed in County Down.
A male peregrine was shot and at least one buzzard has died from suspected poisoning.
The peregrine was found in a field near Sprucefield with four pellets lodged in its leg, wing and shoulder blade. It was taken to the vet, but died a few days later.
The bird was ringed as part of a scientific study and identified as having hatched this year in Co Antrim.
The buzzard was found alive but suffering from apparent poisoning in the Drumbanagher area near Newry.
Despite treatment by a vet, the bird died, haemorrhaging blood and water.
Full laboratory results are still awaited, but initial results indicate poisoning.
Claire Ferry, Conservation Officer at the RSPB, said: “We are horrified to learn of probable human persecution of birds of prey.
“Shooting or poisoning of all birds of prey is illegal and the PSNI has been made aware of both cases.”
She continued: “These incidents may well be the tip of the iceberg. There was a case of alleged persecution of peregrines in the Mourne Mountains earlier this year. We encourage anyone who knows of any bird or wildlife crime to report incidents to the PSNI and the Wildlife Officer at EHS to investigate.”

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Southern Exhibition 2006
Saturday 7th October 2006

The Amateur Entomologists’ Society (AES) is the UK’s leading organisation for people interested in insects. Members include novices and professional scientists alike - from the very young to those with a lifelong interest in insects.

The exhibition is held at Kempton Park Racecourse on the 7th October and is the ideal place to buy entomological books, equipment or talk to other entomologists.

There will be a members’ Wants and Exchanges table, and members are asked to let the Registrar know if they would be interested in using it. The table is willing to accept items donated by members for sale for the Society’s funds, plus items sold on behalf of members will incur a minimum donation to funds of 10% of the selling price.

Information about exhibition space and tables for trading can be obtained from the AES Registrar. His address is below:

AES Exhibition
PO Box 8774,
London,
SW7 5ZG.

or email: exhibition@amentsoc.org

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Experts have said a rare jellyfish found in water in a part of Leicestershire is “an amazing find”.

Amateur wildlife enthusiast Michael Gray from Newbold was out walking his dog when he saw something unusual in Stanigal Water.

On closer inspection, he found a 2cm-wide Amazonian freshwater jellyfish and contacted local wildlife experts.

Since the 1800s, the sightings of the creature, usually found in Brazil, have been few and far between in the UK.

It is thought the jellyfish could have been brought into the country on imported aquatic plants or fishing bait.

Mr Gray said: “I was just out walking the dogs when I spotted something in the water.

“On closer inspection, I saw it was a jellyfish and as I always carry my camera around with me, I took a photo and sent it into the county council.”

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The search is on for a team of people with nerves of steel - to help look after the dormice of the Wye Valley.

Conservation group the WWF is looking to train up to 14 volunteers to help monitor the tiny creatures.

A spokeswoman warned that handling the mice can be “a pretty nerve-wracking experience”.

She said they are “doddle” to handle when they’re sleepy, but added they “can be very active - shooting out of the nest box when you least expect it”.

There are strict protection laws for dormice, which mean that anyone handling them must have special training.

The volunteers will make monthly checks of 300 nest boxes in Monmouthshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire from next spring.

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This year’s hot weather and lack of rain is hitting wildlife hard, with ducks and fish dying.

Pollution watchdogs are also concerned by the lack of water in rivers and the growth of green algae slime which cuts oxygen levels.

More than 400 fish died in the River Idle near Sheffield and around 1,000 small fish were found dead in the Counter Drain near Cambridge.

The Environment Agency is asking people to call if they see any problems.

At more than 100 sites across England and Wales over the past two months, low water and oxygen levels have caused fish to gasp for air, turned ponds green and stranded lots of types of insects that live in water.

In one instance, at least 10 ducks died in Waltham Abbey because their lake became infected through lack of water and oxygen.

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