News Hopline -
News Hopline -
News Hopline

The 2003 Hop To It - Irish Frog Survey is being organised by the Irish Peatland Conservation Council to find out more about the status of the frog in Ireland.

Here is some of the latest breaking froggy news items from around the country.

30 July 2003 Hop To It Irish Frog Survey CD Rom published with information about the findings of the 2003 survey. Maps of frogs for every county in Ireland included. Mac and PC friendly CD ROM. Cost Euro 30. Follow this link to frog shopping to order your copy 2003 Frog Survey

30 June 2003 - For those of you waiting in anticipation for the report of the 2003 Hop to It Survey, keep your eye on our webiste and other IPCC publicity. This report will be available to buy on CD format very shortly. It will contain all the information on the distribution and breeding of the common frog in Ireland. It will also contain recommendations for individuals, local authorities and government agencies on the protection of this important species and its habitats.

20 June 2003 - Most of the data received as part of the frog survey has now been analysed and all the graphs have been made. One of the main points that has emerged is the importance of the garden pond to the frog in Ireland. The majority of records received were from garden ponds and this habitat is likely to become more important to the frog in future years as they're natural habitats are lost to drainage, pollution and peat extration. For those interested in making their garden pond as frog friendly as possible, check out the frog friendly garden link at the side of this page.

7 June 2003 - And so the Hop to It survey of 2003 must come to an end. From today, any records received will have missed the deadline. As we has almost 1,200 records returned, there is much analysis and graph making to be done, so we have to stop processing records somewhere or we'd never be finished! Any records received after today will be put aside until the next chapter of teh Hop to It survey.

30 May 2003 - IPCC's 2003 Hop to It Frog Survey is now coming to an end. We had a great response to the survey and we have processed almost 3,000 records - much more than the previous survey of 1997. To see the crrent map of the Hop to It frog distribution in Ireland, check out the frog maps page on our website. The current map shows a wide distribution throughout Ireland. However there are some areas that yielded very poor results - including South Donegal, East Galway, East Clare,Tipperary, Tyrone and Antrim.

If you have any records outstanding or if you can help fill in the gaps on the above localities, then please get you records into IPCC before 7th June. After this date, no more records will be processed as part of this survey
and all efforts will go to the preparation of the Hop to It report.

Survey forms can be downloaded from our website.

19 May 2003 - The almost complete frog map is now available online - check it out in Frogs in Ireland Maps link at the top of the page. Overall, we are quite happy. Counties like Westmeath and Longford that started off having very poor records, finished up quite well. There were some areas that we are still concerned about though, such as west Donegal and east Galway. What happened here? Please, if you have any records for these poor frogless areas, send them in before June 1st. That's the frog record deadline. After that, work will concentrate on producing the frog report.

9 May 2003 - The frog survey is now winding down. We have had over 3,000 records, which means that the 2003 survey received much more records than the 1997 survey. We owe this to a number of reasons - but the most significant one is the use of the internet and e-mail to send in records. This accounted for almost half the records received. Access to the internet and e-mail is much more common now than it was in 1997.

11 April 2003 - We have now passed the number of frog records sent in as part of the 1997 survey. This is really great - thanks to all who have sent in records. Comparing the 1997 survey with the current survey, it can be seen that some areas are quite different. In the last survey the west coast of Donegal had loads of records - in this survey we have hardly any. Whether this is due to people not participating in the survey or a decrease in the numbers of frogs from this area cannot be said at this stage. Time will tell.

27 March 2003 - The records have been coming in their dozens these past few weeks. This is great news, but it is a lot of work to get them all databased. So, please have patience if you are waiting for the latest froggy map. Almost every county has now returned some records to us - except Co. Monaghan. If anyone can help with this, please send in a survey card

10 March 2003 - Here are a series of froggy pictures we have received from some of our frog watchers around the country.

Frogs in a garden pond in Co Wexford. Photo by Edward Delaney	Frog spawn in a ditch in forestry plantation in Co Sligo. Photo by Aiden Bout
Dead frog partly eaten by Heron in a lake in Co Sligo. Photo by Aiden Bout	Frog in pond. Photo by Edward Delaney
Two frogs in amplexus in Sligo. Photo by Aidan Bout	Ripples caused by disappearing frogs in a garden pond in Co. Roscommon. Photo by Anthony Cauley.

7 February 2003 - Now the days are getting longer, people will be looking around for the definite signs of spring. One of these signs is the sight of frog spawn. In Ireland, spawn always seems to first appear in areas in the south, such as counties Cork and Kerry. It can be up to a month later before spawn is seen in the more northerly parts of the country. The reason for this probably due to differences in climate between these to areas. Recent research suggests that the key element is the cumulative number of warm days from December to February. The precise trigger for spawning is believed to be a rise in the maximum temperature of the area. So as the south of the country tends to be warmer than the north, it comes as no surprise that spawn should be seen here first. So far in the IPCC Hop to It 2003 survey, we've had records for spawn in counties Cork, Kerry, Wexford and Kilkenny.

31 January 2003 - Thanks to all who have sent in frog records so far this year. For those of you who haven't, hop to it and get those records into us. Some counties like Kerry, Carlow, Laois and Dublin are doing really well. However, we still have some counties with no 2002 / 2003 records. If you live in Westmeath, Longford, Leitrim, Roscommon, Offaly, Tyrone, Sligo, Mayo, Clare or Donegal we want any records you may have. Go for a walk in the countryside and see if you can see any spawn. If you have a garden pond, have a peak in there to see if there is any frog activity. If you are successful, you can download the recording cards from our website or you can get them directly from us at 119 Capel St, (01) 8722397.

24 January 2003 - Here's a nice idea for a game for those looking for froggy activities. Cut out a fairly large frog shape (as viewed from above) from a template from a stiff piece of cardboard. Colour in all the details and then carefully put a pencil hole behind the head area. Thread about 3 metres of string through this hole and tie one end to the leg of a chair. Stretch the strings back at floor level and then you can race your frog from the end of the string to the chair by hopping the string up and down. Get lots of people involved for a fun frog race!

17 January 2003 - IPCC has just had an interesting query that deserves a mention on the Hopline. In early January, this person noted tadpoles in a mountain pond in Dingle, Co. Kerry and was curious about it. They were from a batch of spawn that had been there since February 2002. This is not an uncommon phenomenon. In particularly cold summer - like the cold, wet summer of last year - the development of the frog will be slower and certain tadpoles will not mature into frogs in their first year. This has also been observed this year from a garden pond in Dublin. These particular tadpoles should mature within this year.

20 December 2002 - IPCC has received the first record of a sighting of frog spawn for this year. The spawn was seen on the 10th of December 2002 from a stream on a farm near Johnstown, Co. Kilkenny. This is one of the earliest sightings of frog spawn ever recorded in Ireland. No other records for this years frog spawn have yet been received by IPCC.

13 December 2002 - Finished mailing 5,376 schools in the Republic and Northern Ireland with Frog survey cards.

10 December 2002 - The first survey card is submitted from Northern Ireland with a 2002 record. The record is from a 10km square for which there was no previous record of frogs.

6 December 2002 - A man from Palmerstown in Dublin contacted the Hopline to tell us that every year frogs lay spawn in seed trays in his back garden!

8 December 2002 - Survey cards are distributed to 10,000 homes, schools, Gardens Open to the Public, Wildlife Rangers and among biologists and County Council environmental staff throughout Ireland.

6 December 2002 - IPCC launch the Hop to It Irish Frog Survey to the Irish press and media.

6 December 2002 - IPCC launch the 2003 Hop to It Irish Frog Survey website with over 100 pages of frog information, games, facts and craft ideas as well as 200 maps, charts, diagrams and photographs. The site also has individual county maps for each of the 32 counties showing the 10km squares for which we still need frog records to complete information on the species in Ireland.

6 December 2002 - IPCC publish the Hop to It Irish Frog Book. This 24 page colour resource guide contains a wealth of information on frogs in Ireland and around the world; how to take part in the Irish Frog survey and craft and game ideas on frogs. Copies of the book are available for Euro 5 with Euro 1 for p&p from IPCC. Order your copy here today.