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Why did frogs die in my pond during the cold snap?09/02/2010 17:55:08
Frogs are killed by snow on ponds rather than ice. Photo credit TJ Robson. Why did so many frogs die in garden ponds during the cold snap - Even though we made holes in the ice? Answer from Jeremy Biggs of Pond Conservation The cause of mortalities during the cold weather is mostly the frogs running out of oxygen under the ice - though poisoning by toxic gases can't yet be completely ruled out. Frogs are happy under ice normally provided there's a bit of oxygen but they can't tolerate complete deoxygenation for more than 4-7 days. During the snowy weather its likely that more ponds became deoxygenated than usual. Snow on ice kills the frogs Note that ice isn't automatically bad - in my pond oxygen doubled under the ice. But when the snow came it really dropped. Making holes probably has little or no effect.
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Read the comments about this article and leave your own comment
I was very sad earlier this year when the thaw came and over the next few days we found over 60 dead frogs in our ponds. Having searched the internet we put this down to the hideously cold temperatures and feared we would see no frog activity this year. This weekend I cleared out my pond ready for the spring and as well as finding three more dead frogs I also found two living ones.
Imagine my delight when on Monday I found frogspawn in the pond and with each night their antics are getting more and more lively! My fears that our frogs had not survived the winter have gone unfounded. I have some great pictures and if anyone knows how would be happy to post them. I hope this gives some hope to pond owners out there.
Posted by: Janet Richards | 23 Mar 2011 21:25:32
I have an average sized pond,an over the past few days have been taking out dead frogs.In total 32.Has anybody got an answer to this problem.
I do get the odd few dead ones after spawning,due to over zealous males,but not this many.
Exeter,Devon.
Posted by: Kevin | 19 Feb 2011 12:39:35
In our small pond we've found 4 dead adult frogs.... bloated with a definite bib shape red patch under their chins. During the cold spell there was a thick layer of ice over the pond. Virus or asphixiation? Do we need to disinfect the pond?
Posted by: anne jones | 10 Feb 2011 12:17:09
In our very small pond our children have been horrified to see dead frogs. I have hooked out 8 large ones and 4 small ones. Bloated and floating. Will that mean we will have no frogs this year?
Do they hibernate in the bottom of ponds over the winter? What about our newt? (we saw one last year) where is he? has gone off to hibernate somewhere else?
Posted by: sarah cullen | 31 Jan 2011 11:27:34
I have spent the last few days removing bloated floating frogs from my garden pood, big ones medium small, total 30 todate. I did not know about the snow on ice, we float a large washing up bowl on the pond in winter, the ice was very deep I have had two large fish float to the surface today, I am so sad seems I may have lost them all.The next few days will tell.Jan 26th 2011
Posted by: doreengooodall | 26 Jan 2011 15:42:31
It’s not going to be ranavirus that’s to blame for the frog deaths at this time of year as it’s only active in quite warm temperatures. It is slightly unusual, and concerning, to find so many dead frogs but it’s most likely to be the work of a predator or frogs that have died after spawning. Exhaustion often takes its toll on breeding amphibians anyway but with the long winter this year the frogs are even more susceptible.
Courtesy of www.froglife.com
Posted by: Powell Ettinger | 26 Mar 2010 13:37:58
We looked at your website on Sunday 21st March as we found several dead frogs around our pond possibly about ten.
We believe a virus is in the UK and we are not sure if this was the reason,contacting yourselves just in case any stats are being noted.
Looking at the frogs they did have red blotches in places, this I believe reading the literature, could be due to internal bleeding ?
Posted by: Powell Ettinger | 23 Mar 2010 15:31:56
We do hear about females being drowned by ‘enthusiastic’ males and our advice is not to separate them as you can damage the males legs that way; it’s not nice to witness but is a natural part of the frog breeding process. There are often more male frogs than females so it’s easy for her to be grabbed by several at once and to struggle to free herself. I’ve not heard of the female being revived before! But maybe that’s because we tell people not to separate them.
From www.froglife.org
Posted by: Powell Ettinger | 23 Mar 2010 15:31:05
Since feb 14th, we have had two of our frogs die, the only way to describe what happened was they were squeezed to death by another frog, we did seperate one pair once and the frog being squeezed came round and changed to it normal colour, but as soon as it got back into the pond it was pounced on again.
Even though our frogs have started spawing today 19/3/10 we are puzzled by the behaviour of the dead and the culprit.
Posted by: Powell Ettinger | 23 Mar 2010 15:29:34
In my dads pond ,in Carlisle , Cumbria, frogs have appeared belly up and bloated...about a dozen so far....Having seen the previous postings...i'll pass the information on to him about the snow...there's been quite a bit of it in his garden... I just hope some have survived to do the dastardly spring deed...
Posted by: Smeddum | 16 Feb 2010 17:06:13