Much of our research relies on a big dataset of public disease reports which is held by a charity called Froglife. The main habitat for amphibians in the UK is private garden ponds. When people see frogs dying in their ponds, they used to get in touch with Froglife and report the deaths - more recently this information comes in via the Garden Wildlife Health project. The dataset goes back to the 1990s, and has thousands of entries. Each entry has information like the number of frogs dead, the signs of disease seen, what other species are in the pond (native species like toads and newts, and exotic species like goldfish), and what garden chemicals are used.
This is an amazing resource for looking at the impacts of a wildlife disease - it has meant we can find frog populations that we know have long histories of disease to compare with healthy populations. It seems fitting to start this blog by thanking all the pond owners who have made the research possible!
This is an amazing resource for looking at the impacts of a wildlife disease - it has meant we can find frog populations that we know have long histories of disease to compare with healthy populations. It seems fitting to start this blog by thanking all the pond owners who have made the research possible!