Index Home Join IPCC

PRESS RELEASE 29th January 2007

Friday February 2nd is World Wetlands Day, a day to celebrate the
biodiversity and beauty of our precious wetlands. The Irish Peatland
Conservation Council (IPCC) are encouraging people to hop along to their local
wetland on the day to keep a watch out for frogs or frogspawn,
especially if they are getting up to any antics on the day the whole world
is celebrating their homeland and wetlands!

Believe it or not, one of the best places to begin your frog watch is the back garden,
especially if you have a garden pond. In fact you do not even need a pond, if you have any wet spot, an old bath, a dustbin lid, a bucket or a puddle, the frogs may use it to lay their spawn. IPCC need information on frogs in every county in Ireland so that we can monitor the health of our wetlands and the countryside in general.

Look out for adult frogs, frog spawn, tadpoles, froglets in your wetland patch.

You can file your records on line by visiting Hop To It! - Irish Frog Survey - you can also learn how to bake a frog cake, how to make a frog mask, see the largest frogs in the world, learn a few frog jokes or you can take on a bigger project such as making a frog friendly pond in your garden. It's all there on the Hop to It Frog Web Site.

Frogs are widespread in Ireland. IPCC have been collecting frog records since 1997. So far there are over 3,000 records for frogs in Ireland. Frogs are found in
every county in Ireland, however records are still needed from counties
Donegal, Antrim, Galway and Clare, as there is little information so far
from these counties.

Irish wetlands need your help. If you see any sign of frog life, please take part in the survey by filling out a survey card and returning it to IPCC. The survey cards are quite
straightforward, you don't have to be a herpetologist to fill them out.
Basic information such as location of frog site, number of frogs seen and
the type of habitat present should be recorded on the cards. So Hop to It
and record the life cycle of frogs in your area. Survey cards can also be obtained directly from IPCC, Bog of Allen Nature Centre, Lullymore, Rathangan, Co. Kildare. Once you have your card filled out, you can return it by e-mail or post to IPCC.

ENDS

For further information please contact:
Irish Peatland Conservation Council
Lullymore
Rathangan
Co. Kildare
Ireland
Tel 045-860133
Fax: 045-860481
www.ipcc.ie
bogs@ipcc.ie

Action for Bogs & Wildlife