A coalition of wildlife charities are asking UK residents if they would volunteer to carry out a national ’stock take’ of any reptiles and amphibians in their UK gardens.
So whether you have frogs or toads, newts or slow worms, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Froglife and the Herpetological Conservation Trust (HCT) want to hear from you.
The conservationists hope the stock taking survey will bring together amateur wildlife watchers, including birdwatchers, gardeners, hands-on conservation volunteers as well as the general public, and the results will contribute to knowledge about where frogs, toads, newts, snakes and lizards can be found in the UK and allow the scientists a clearer understanding to how important our gardens are for wilflife conservation.
The survey results will also be used to see how the local amphibian and reptile populations may be responding to a variety of threats, including habitat loss, disease and garden chemicals.
“The good thing about this is that we’re using such a wide number of people so we’re getting information that we never would have done in the past. We’re hoping to get over 20,000 people getting involved,” said Jules Howard from Froglife.
The volunteers are being asked to complete a simple recording form, marking off species they have seen and answering straightforward questions about their gardens, such as whether they have a pond, whether they use pesticides or whether or not they have a compost heap.
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