UK Nature Blog

Frogspawn

If the buzz on Twitter is to be believed, the last couple of sunny days have got frogs in the mood and frogspawn is appearing in ponds across the UK. The link is a live search for "frogspawn" so will pick up whatever's most recently been tweeted.

Kew Gardens' Iguana

A splash of colour to liven up a drab winter. This is the resident Iguana in one of the glass houses at Kew Gardens in London. I had no idea there was one, so I was quite surprised to turn a corner and find it right there on a wall looking pleased with itself.

Update: actually as Richard points out in the comments this is more likely a water dragon than an Iguana!

Creating a wildlife wall habitat

The London Wildlife Trust has a mini-guide describing how to make a diverse 'habitat wall'. This seems like a massive no-holds-barred version of the insect hibernaculums that seem to have become popular recently - but with room for everything, possibly even small deer :-)

Frogs in Chytridiomycosis Jeopardy

 

There has been growing worldwide concern over the so far unstoppable spread of Chytridiomycosis - a fungal disease which kills amphibians. Some have even predicted that amphibians are on the way out altogether, and indeed a number of species have become extinct within just a few years.

The BBC reports news that the disease has now been properly understood in terms of how it brings about death, confirming the suspicion that the fungus interferes with electrolyte transfer through the skin resulting in eventual cardiac arrest. However this doesn't much advance the fight against the disease. Fungicides are already known to work, but it's completely impractical to apply them to the world's frog populace.

In the UK the disease has been recorded in a few locations, as noted by ZSL. Their page also contains a good introduction to the disease itself, though it only speculates on how it causes death since it predates the recent discovery.