Hobby results
in frog march through Australian Outback
Friday, February 28, 2003
Web posted at 12:00:01 AM EST
Staff
Yorkshire Post
(YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND) A frog enthusiast
swapped the Yorkshire Dales for the Australian tropics to study
the country's frog population.
Kevin Hardaker, 41, a banking officer from Grassington, spent
two weeks in New South Wales observing frog numbers and their
behaviour. The trip was part of a five-year partnership between
his employers, HSBC, and environmental charity Earthwatch.
Working at night by torchlight on a bush camp expedition, Mr
Hardaker had to find, catch, weigh and measure frogs, collecting
data to help scientists find clues to the amphibians' worldwide
decline.
Frogs are highly sensitive to environmental hazards so any widespread
reduction in their numbers could have significant implications.
Mr Hardaker said: Australia is having its worst drought in 100
years, so the frogs are moving around more than usual.
On one site, the beck which has always been searched before
had almost no frogs in it.
Male frogs are very territorial, but they had moved several
hundred metres from the beck.
The research scientists were disappointed but not downhearted.
We found enough frogs to be confident that there wasn't a sudden
crisis developing.
Mr Hardaker said his interest in frogs began five years ago
when he dug a pond in his garden and quickly found it full of
spawn.
We have only one type of frog in the UK, the common European
frog, but in Australia there are more than 200 varieties and
they are much cuter than the ones you find over here.
Mr Hardaker, who works in HSBC's Settle branch, now qualifies
for a £400 grant from the company which he will use to set up
an environmental project locally.
He plans to encourage indigenous frogs to migrate into the area
and breed and would like to launch a full research study into
the local frog population.
Copyright Notice:
Copyright 2003 Regional Independent Media
Reprinted from http://www.frogs.org/news/article.asp?CategoryID=12&InfoResourceID=1784
