Grantham Ecology

So I spent a little time today taking portraits of amphibians, as you do… I was translocating great crested newts from a site proposed for development and ended up capturing large numbers of smooth newts and toads as well as the great cresteds. I collected the amphibians together and then took them to the receptor site which had been created to provide them with habitat in the long term. As I went to release them, I was struck by the variety of individuals within the same species.

The variation is probably down to a range of factors such as diet, age, maturity, condition, sex or simply genetic variation; and ranges from obvious differences such as colour down to quite subtle differences in patterning or facial structure.

I took the opportunity to take a few ‘portraits’ to record some of these individual characters. It is a lesson which nature constantly re-iterates – look a little closer and you will always see more than at first meets the eye.