CLOSE Know what you are looking for? Use these quick links to find what you want faster...
Having seen drastic declines over the last few decades, frogs and toads are in desperate need of help.
Their numbers have plummeted due to a range of factors: disease, habitat loss and fragmentation, and pollution of our freshwater habitats have all contributed.
But it’s not too late to turn the future around for our amphibian friends, and you can play an important role in helping them to recover.
See below to find out what you can do to help.
Here are a few ways that you can help to encourage frogs and toads to your garden and give them a much needed helping hand.
Should you find a sick or dead amphibian, it’s important to report it to the Garden Wildlife Health organisation.
The best thing that you can do for frogs and toads is to create a wildlife pond in your garden. It’s estimated that a third of ponds have disappeared in the last 50 years, severely limiting the habitat that frogs and toads require to breed. Even a small pond can make a big difference to amphibians as well as many other species such as dragonflies, water beetles and even hedgehogs!
As well as needing a pond, frogs and toads need somewhere to hide that’s away from both the sun and from predators such as herons. Long vegetation, piles of stones or logs, compost heaps, even holes underneath paving slabs or your garden shed will provide the space they need to stay protected, particularly over their winter hibernation period.
Slugs, snails and many insects that we might consider garden pests are at the top of the menu for frogs and toads. Not only does using pesticides and slug pellets potentially remove this important food source, but some of the chemicals that they contain can kill amphibians outright.
We manage our network of 120 wildlife reserves in a way that allows wildlife of all kinds to thrive.
Some of our urban reserves, such as Jupiter Urban Wildlife Centre and Bawsinch & Duddingston, provide a haven for amphibians amongst the concrete jungles of our towns and cities.
We also protect and manage many wetland reserves which have healthy populations of common frogs and common toads, such as Tailend Moss and Oldhall Ponds.
