Little skinny frogs

[swllwmzn]

We still have lots of what I think are male frogs hanging around. Got loads of spawn which is just starting to hatch and in previous years the male frogs seemed to leave about a week after the last clump of spawn appeared. I think these are males ad they are quite small. I'm a bit worried that as well as small some also look really skinny. The pond plants are only just starting to grow now after the very harsh winter. There are lots of slugs in the garden. Bit concerned there won't be enough food for all these frogs and the tadpoles when they are all hatched. I know there's a big mortality rate with tadpoles anyway but I wouldn't want to see any of the frogs dying, we lost about 10 of the long term residents over the winter.

[Deb London]

I think you have to do what you can to create a good habitat for the frogs and then leave nature to take its course.

My pond only had 4 clumps of spawn, which isn't a lot, and out of this, I only expect a few frogs to make it to adulthood. And we were a few adults down on last year. At the moment I'm wondering if the garden can support frogs as well as newts. My clumsy efforts at saving some frogspawn in a tank ended up with the loss of that spawn and I reminded myself that I shouldn't really interfere too much as in an ideal world, the neighbouring gardens would support frogs too. If you'd ever seen the neighbours gardens and the high density of small kids, you would realise that there is a fat chance of this happening. Moving amphibia is wrong. I just do what I can then live with it.

[toadpole]

Hi Swllwmzn I too have noticed lots of frogs hanging about the garden and a few of them quite skinny too there are 2 or 3 in the pond as well at the moment .. but then i usually get 2 females that stay in there all summer long i think they think its a ''spa'' but slowly in the last week most have disapeared and gone back to the woods that are behind my house or to neighbouring gardens where they spend most of their time ...its odd because the frogs seem to mostly go off ,but the toads actually have started to venture in !!! and choose to spend the summer under my large collection of logs ...they have never bred of their own accord (my dream) but seem to know its a bit of a safe haven ...I only had a pair breed as last year i kidnapped them heading for my neighbours pond which sadly has been filled in now so i thought i would be lucky this year ...and even found a pair in amplexus with 2 other males fighting with the male on top in exactly the same place as last year..... once again they were heading for the pond that was no more so i thought Bingo !!!! popped them in my pond .....and nothing they all left .....but i have seen 2 of the males quite happy under their logs so that will do for me Marion

[Togalosh]

I've just come across this:

"Frog Ranavirus - Mass mortalities caused by a virus or a group of viruses belonging to the genus Ranavirus have occurred in wild common frogs in England since the 1980s.The virus causes internal bleeding and skin ulceration, and affected animals may appear drowsy, and abnormally thin. Where disease outbreaks occur it is common to find large numbers of dead frogs in a comparatively short period of time.

It should be noted that the ranavirus is only active in warm temperatures so dead frogs found outside the summer months are likely to have died from another cause."