What is eating my Toads.

[steve french]

Hi every one, this is my first post on this forum, i have an half acre lake that has got a good mix of fish, in the middle of March every year the lake is alive with Toads. every morning for the last two weeks in March i find heaps of dead and dying Toads, most are half eaten and as i say left in heaps of ten or so. i do have water shrews and of course the usual rats and Hedghogs. the lake is in Lincolshire and is set amongst 8 acres which is managed to suit all the wild life it can possibly attract, any ideas on the culprit and has anyone else had similar experience,
Cheers Steve French.

[Darley]

Got any pics of the cime scene?

[Kayleigh]

Hi Steve and welcome.
Could be mink

[Lance Morgan]

Interesting...
I don't think there are many things that would have a go at a toad because of poisonous secretion on their skin. Could be a fox ? or crows have been known to remove the skin before eating but even so not in the numbers you describe. Could be mink?

[steve french]

Thanks for the replies, i will try to post some photos soon, i thought about Mink, it is perhaps the only thing i have not seen on my place, i know there are Stoats about, but i always understood that the Toad was not edible, i have watched the Rats gather food and store it, a bit like the unfortunate Toads stored in heaps, so i am hoping to get some evidence next season by using night vision cameras, and maybe those little Water Shrews could be up to the deed too.

[Darley]

I'm not an expert, but what puzzles me is the gathering together of the toads in one place. This seems to me a strange behaviour, and whilst rats have been mentioned, I don't think they would kill toads. They might eat a dead toad, and I'm wondering if the toads gathered in one place while alive and then died of some other cause. Afterwards a range of animals might have come along and had a nibble. Pics will certainly help.

[Lance Morgan]

march - mating

[Darley]

Originally Posted by Lance Morgan

march - mating

Ah I didn't read the post properly - I was thinking they were dying now. That could be a clue - does anyone know if toads die after mating? Maybe they died during mating due to an external influence, maybe a poison?

[steve french]

These Toads are eaten during the two weeks or so that they mate, usually in March, they are killed or maimed by something, sometimes they will have a pair of legs chewed off and will be still alive, whilst others are killed by their injuries, they are not revisited and eaten at a later date, they are left and others are predated. it is a mystery and the first time i have heard of this happening, just wondered where else this is happening, unless its something that as evolved here only.

[Darley]

Ah sounds like something is nibbling them while they mate ... possibly a fox or another small predator. I guess they are so determined to mate they don't try to escape.