Ecological consultancy work gives lots of opportunities to get up close and personal with reptiles and amphibians. One of our roles is to help our clients develop receptor sites, containing ponds, refuges, hibernacula and terrestrial habitat prior to site clearance. We then capture the reptiles or amphibians from the development site and move them to their new habitat to ensure that the populations can survive and grow into the future.
These are a few photographs of amphibians taken during 2016.
Toads are not protected by the same legislation as great crested newts, but we always take the opportunity to move them to safety. I love how characterful toads can be, especially when you take their portrait!Translocating a number of animals at the same time lets you appreciate how variable they are. These are all portraits of smooth newts but the variation in colour is quite significant. To some extent this reflects gender and age, but also the natural variation which characterises any population of animal.A selection of toad portraits – these are one of my favourite animals and I wanted to try to capture them in such a way that you can appreciate the individuality of each and every one. The eyes of a toad are always surprising – the rich golden, reddish colour is quite beautiful if you get down to their level to appreciate it!A great crested newt from the translocation – these have much darker skin than the smooth newts as well as a much rougher texture. These animals spend much of their lives on land foraging for invertebrates during the summer or hibernating in a safe sheltered place during the winter. In the springtime however, all of the adults return to their ponds to breed.Palmate newts are relatively infrequent in the UK and certainly not common near to me. We went away for a few days around Easter and I nipped out to look in the ornamental pond behind our cottage at night to find a good population by torchlight. This male is showing off the distinctive back feet which help to identify this handsome creature from the superficially similar smooth newt.Three juvenile amphibians from a translocation check – from left to right is a great crested newt, a smooth newt and a toad. These were all released into their new receptor site where there are refugia and habitat to allow them to develop on into adults and help to sustain the population into the future.
If you are interested in commissioning amphibian surveys in the midlands, you can check out Landscape Science Consultancy’s website here!
Grantham Ecology 