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Scientific
Name: Rana temporaria
Size: 9cm
Weight: 20 gms
Distribution: Most of Europe
Description: Although
not a globally threatened species, the common frog suffered a huge
decline in numbers during the middle and latter part of the 20th
Century in Britain. In many
areas it was saved by the rising popularity of garden ponds.
As frogs will happily lay eggs in the smallest of ponds or
puddles, these were especially important to the populations of heavily
urbanised areas such as towns and cities.
Common frogs require many different habitats to survive.
They breed in freshwater, spend most of their adult lives on land
but also need a safe place to hibernate over winter.
The loss of any one of these habitats can cause frog numbers to
decrease or even become locally extinct.
Just as the frog is starting to recover, the foreign
‘red-leg’ disease has become a problem in recent years, first being
recorded in the south-east of England in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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