Frogs, toads and newts have suffered a decline in numbers over the last fifty years. Largely due to a loss of habitat through drainage improvement on farmland or through pollution caused by use of inorganic fertilisers to boost agricultural production.

Much of the habitat loss of the last fifty years no longer takes place as landowners take advantage of grant schemes to maintain habitat areas and there is a move more generally to farm diversification and de-intensification.

Garden habitats have become a last refuge for amphibians and it is important that these are safeguarded, allowing populations to recolonise the rural areas where farming practices have improved.

Did you know?  

• The world record frog jump is 33 feet 5.5 inches over the course of 3 consecutive leaps, achieved in May 1977 by a South African sharp-nosed frog called Santjie.
  
• The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people.
  
• It is estimated that a single toad may catch and eat as many as 10,000 insects in the course of a summer.
  
• Amphibians’ eyes come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some even have square or heart-shaped pupils.
  
• Certain frogs can be frozen solid and thawed and still remain alive.

Our grateful thanks to Gary Richardson, who was invaluable in researching the information in this page.