Boom & bust..?

Photo: Mike Hill

Day 283 #365DaysWild

Our second year without frogspawn.

In 2022 we stopped being able to count when around 100 clumps of spawn merged.

By torchlight forty males.

For the past two years no spawn in George’s Pond, at 25m diameter, the largest of our ten ponds. Or in any of the other nine ponds.

We have seen evidence of predation of frogs. But nothing to explain the sudden collapse.

We’re left wondering…

Is this part of a natural ‘boom and bust’ cycle of frog populations ..?

Is there a local factor we haven’t been able to explain?

Or are we part of a wider and more significant collapse ..?