Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog!

Foundation Degree Countryside and Wildlife Management students accompanied your resident blogger to set some very crafty 'bottle traps' to try and capture a highly elusive and secretive creature that is protected by law - the great crested newt. With trapping success in one farm pond last year, students were pleased to find that the specialist traps had snared live specimens in another pond where they had previously never been recorded before.

Matt and Tim (pictured below) were careful to obtain some pictures of the belly markings of each animal which gives each a discernible identity (akin to a finger print). Studies have shown that these surprisingly long lived creatures can return to the same pond for up to 20 years! The presence of great crested newts on the farm clearly shows the health of the farmed environment for wildlife which to the untrained eye would appear of limited value to any native rare species. Indeed, these amphibians exist in 'a population of populations' (or a metapopulation) where breeding animals can migrate up to 1 km between different ponds. But how they are able to do this, no one knows!

Paul's group of BTEC Countryside Management students have also done their bit by expertly fencing off one of the ponds to protect it for future surveys.