Tree frogs native to UK? (1 Viewer)

[Pete Mella]

Just read this, and very interesting it is too, suggesting the New Forest's tree frogs in the UK may be the remnants of a native population rather than introduced (as previously thought).

http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2007/02/britains_lost_tree_frogs_sigh.php

Anyone got any comments on this?

 

[PYRTLE]

Midwife Toads

No comment but in Sheringham, North Norfolk, there is a small colony of these very settled in a private garden with a large natural pond. They are escapees

 

[Brian Stone]

I've seen similar arguments to suggest the Isle of Wight Wall Lizards may be neglected natives (again no-one seems to be able to point to exactly when they were introduced). Shame the Tree Frogs seem to have died out if that's the case.

 

[gareth_blockley]

Who knows? and as Brian has rightly pointed out the population has now died off so we may never know...

sounds like the same situation as Pool frogs and many birds, we let them die then decided to conserve them....

 

[glaciermint]

There was a lengthy article in British Wildlife recently which strengthened the hypothesis that Common Tree Frog was once native and is worth reading. (B.W. Feb 2006, Status of the Common Tree Frog in Britain by Charles Snell) This is credited in the article you refer to.

Sadly it seems that even with modern DNA knowledge the truth may never be known. Certainly there is strong evidence that post glacial conditions were unlikely to be a problem and although I have always assumed tree frogs to be a more southerly species it exists as part of the Swedish herpetofauna today. It appears to be a very cold tolerant species and relatively speaking accepts a diversity of habitat, though this does raise the question as to why it died out since there is evidence in literature that its existence was well documented in the 1600s.

The lesson I suppose, as with the Pool Frog analogy, is that just because many species have been introduced in more recent times we should take more care to ensure that we protect what we have and should not be too cavalier with a supposedly introduced species.