During an earlier visit to the Vendée, back in 2012, European Tree Frogs Hyla arborea appeared to be plentiful at the same location that the photographer revisited in summer 2023. Sadly, on this occasion, only a single Tree Frog was located during the entire visit, and numbers of invertebrates had clearly dropped too. It is unclear if this apparent catastrophic drop in Tree Frog population was associated with subtle differences in the environment. No other species of amphibian were seen during this visit. Certainly, the previous summer would have been exceptionally hot and dry, with temperatures in the UK reaching a new record high of 40oC at one point, desiccating the leaves of trees and reducing the availability of invertebrate food for animals higher up the food-chain. It was noted that adult male Common Toads Bufo bufo arriving to mate at a site in London appeared to have had smaller body sizes than normal. So, possible causes may include severe drought, either independent of, or associated with, anthropogenic climate change, chytrid (amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis), exposure to toxins or microplastics or a combination of any of the above. Deeply disturbing! So, only one opportunity for filming and photographing this frog presented itself, the 'action' was anything but exciting, and the weather intervened almost immediately, with a stiff breeze and cloud-cover causing the frog to take umbrage in a place where it could not be relocated.
1 окт 2024
