Newtsletter Number 43, October 2007

This is your newsletter so feel free to write, e-mail or phone if you are moved to make a contribution,
or if there is some topic you would like us to cover. As editor I will always be pleased to hear from
you. Patrick Roper, South View, Churchland Lane, Sedlescombe, East Sussex TN33 0PF.
Tel: 01424 870993 and 870208, e-mail: patrick@prassociates.co.uk

For breaking news and topical features go the SARG weblog:

http://sussexamphibianandeptilegroup.blogspot.com

Book your place by 10 November at the

Amphibian & Reptile Groups-UK South East

Regional Conference
2007
on Saturday 17th November 2007
Sponsored by Sutton & East Surrey Water, South East Water, Southern Water and EDF Energy
Hosted by Sussex and Surrey Amphibian and Reptile Groups
"To celebrate 20 years of herpetofauna conservation"
The Arora International Hotel,
Southgate Avenue, Crawley, Sussex RH10 6LW
Regional Conference Programme
Doors open 9:30 am Registration 9:30 to 10:00 am

10:00 Welcome

10:05 Julia Wycherley (Surrey ARG) : “In the olden days...”

Alf Simpson (Sussex ARG) : “Requiem for a toad”

10.35 Trevor Beebee (Sussex University) “Using genetics to define natterjack

toad populations.”

11:00 Coffee

11:20 Mark Amey (Amey Zoo) : “Evolution of venom”

11:45 Denys Ovenden (Wildlife Illustrator) : “Reflections on a misspent life”

12:10 Questions

12:20 Lunch

1:40 Brian Banks (Swift Ecology) : “Crested newt conservation in Poland”

2:05 Jan Clemons (ARG UK) : “Introducing ARG UK”

2:20 Tea/Coffee

2:40 Regional roundup

2:50 Tony Gent (Herpetological Conservation Trust):

(Herp conservation .. why on earth do we bother?")

3:05 Questions

3:15 Close

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Well done Barry and Linda
A newly-joined member, Mrs Fiona Dobbs of East Hoathly, included a card with her application,
and the following is a quote:

"Just a line to say how grateful we are here in East Hoathly to the SARG members particularly Mr
Barry Kemp and Miss Linda Burnham who have been so helpful re Long Pond (saved) and now
Moat Wood with field adjoining where houses are proposed. We are hoping the field can be saved
as a place of natural/ecological interest. The adders, grass snakes, newts (it is believed) dormice and
bats and all use/frequent this area. It is possible that the school, just behind may become involved
with Sussex (Nature) wildlife in a nature study area here.

Mr. David Davies kindly advised me the developer organising regular mowing!”

In brief
Grassland for herpetiles

On the Natural England web site there is a very useful publication written in 1999 and now
available on-line. It is Management of grassland for reptiles and amphibians by Jim Foster. It is a
comprehensive account of how to draw up and implement management plans for all our British
species in many different grassy habitats

It also covers the often contentious issue of grazing and its potential negative impact on
herpetofauna.

The web site is at http://naturalengland.twoten.com/naturalenglandshop/docs/low13.pdf

State batrachian

Washington state in the USA now has an official amphibian -- the Pacific chorus frog -- a
lighthearted addition to a growing list of "official" things that now includes a state vegetable, ship,
folk song and even grass, though not the funny kind.

Is Loch Ness monster a toad?

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been attempting to unravel the mysteries of
Loch Ness. When carrying out a sonar survey they were amazed to find a common toad crawling in
the mud 324ft (98m) down. (BBC News, 3 May 2007)

Of course ...

Along with many lower animals, amphibian skin is one of the most generous sources of
antimicrobial peptides. Several novel molecules have been discovered and these serve to protect
amphibians, living in a soup of potential pathogens, from infection. An example of this is a recent

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report of ranalexin, a 20-residue antimicrobial peptide isolated from the skin of the American
bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana, as a treatment for the antibiotic resistant “superbug” MRSA. Of course,
in addition to using naturally occurring peptides directly as drugs, they can also serve as templates
for the design of novel synthetic antimicrobial compounds. (See also page 5).

From: Microbiology Bytes

Traditional toad tossing

Toad tossing has a long and colourful history. The origins of the 100-year-old game are unknown
but it comes from the Lewes and Newhaven area. The toad, a brass disc, is lobbed into a hole into a
wooden box on four legs. The idea is to throw the toads over eight feet into the hole. Today the
game is thriving thanks to Lewes Lion Club which has run competitions for the past 13 years.

Shah pays up

From The Daily Telegraph 21 August 2001 on Eddy Shah who famously took on the print unions in
the 1980s:

In fact, Eddy does not strike one immediately as a conservationist - his green credentials are not yet
tested to the full; and when told he had to pay £30,000 towards the protection of a colony of Great
Crested Newts on his land, he wriggled. "I said 'no way until I see them'. They brought me two in a
jam jar so I had to capitulate!"

Year of the Frog – 2008

In the United States the Association of Zoos and Aquariums will highlight 2008 as the Year of the
Frog to mark a major conservation effort to address the amphibian extinction crisis. The Year of the
Frog is also meant to engage the public in amphibian conservation and to raise funds for AZA
amphibian conservation efforts into the future.

“Our Year of the Frog task force is developing and compiling educational curriculum materials, fun
family activities, and expert resources to help AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums and our visitors
participate in Year of the Frog. Materials will become available beginning in September and
additional materials will be added throughout 2008.”

Further details at: http://www.aza.org/YearoftheFrog/

The System Works

In early April I was asked, with colleagues, to survey a proposed development site on the outskirts
of Hailsham. In addition to making a site visit, we obtained a report of local species and habitats
from the Sussex Biodiversity Centre at Woods Mill. From this we learnt that the legally protected
great crested newt had been recorded in 2006 from a private house garden just over 350 metres to
the north.

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We walked to this address and were welcomed by the owner who turned out to be a keen wildlife
enthusiast. He took us to the tiny pond he had made with a liner in the back garden and we were
able to confirm that it held both great crested and smooth newts. He said frogs visited from time to
time, though he had seen no frog spawn. Interestingly he told us that the great crested newts had
returned to the water in January this year, the earliest he had seen them.

As he was not a member of SARG we asked the pond owner how he came to send his records to the
Record Centre and it turned out that he was a friend of Alf Simpson who has always been very
active in SARG, so it must have been Alf who passed the data on.

Being able to confirm a record such as this in such a small garden pond does indicate that there are
probably many other opportunities for amphibians locally – not surprising in a low-lying area of
Weald Clay. The site is also less than 500 metres not only from the proposed development site we
were looking at, but from many other places that might get earmarked for bricks and mortar in the
near future. If there is further development, mitigation for great crested newts, which will of course
benefit many other creatures, will have to be built in and there is a much better chance of getting a
worthwhile compromise in which the interests of amphibians and reptiles in this area are catered for
in the as yet unbuilt estates of houses we are told are so desperately needed in South East England.

Patrick Roper, editor

Could a bullfrog hold the answer to MRSA?

LYNDSAY MOSS HEALTH CORRESPONDENT, The Scotsman

AMERICAN bullfrogs could help to solve the problem of the MRSA superbug blighting hospital
wards, Scottish scientists revealed yesterday. A team from St Andrews University has been
experimenting using a material discovered in the frogs, combining it with another compound to
fight infection. They found that the new treatment killed the MRSA bacterium during tests in the
lab, and now hope to move on to clinical trials. The treatment could be used in patients on wards in
the next two years, the lead researcher, Dr Peter Coote, said.

The compound might eventually be used on bandages and on hospital equipment to stop the spread
of the infection, which kills about 2,000 people a year in the UK. Dr Coote, a microbiologist at the
university, said they used a synthetic form of ranalexin from the Rana frog species.

Scientists found that the compound had infection-fighting qualities around a decade ago. They have
since been able to create the same compound in the lab, meaning frogs are not needed for large-
scale production. The researchers at St Andrews have now combined ranalexin with the enzyme
lysostaphin, finding that it had a "potent and significant" inhibitory effect on MRSA.

Dr Coote said there were extra benefits to be gained from using two compounds to target MRSA -
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. "If you treat with a single antibiotic, it is only a matter
of time before the infection becomes resistant to it," he said.

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Legless lizards slow up housing work
A housing development in West Sussex has been delayed by seven months to allow a colony of
slow-worms to be relocated from the building site. Some of the protected species were discovered
during an ecological survey at Forest Road, Midhurst.

The creatures are being moved to a specially selected habitat at nearby Cowdray Park.
"Operation Go Slow" began in April, with hundreds of slow-worms being found and taken away.

BBC News, 1 May 2007

Attract toads to your garden in a creative way!

This is from the Family Crafts web site run by Sherri Osborn in the United States:
http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/gardendecor/a/081301a.htm

Build a tiny toad village in your garden and, if you are lucky, the toads will move in and keep your
garden free of unwanted bugs and slugs.

You can attract toads to your garden, create a wonderful garden decoration, and have some creative
family fun all at the same time. Best of all, this can be achieved for little or no cost. You can easily
create a toad haven using items you may have laying around your house!

Other than the flowers I already had planted and the nice rocks I have been fortunate enough to find,
we made toad houses, a pool, some rustic small fences, and a welcome sign. Use the suggestions I
provide and your own imagination to create a mini-village for your friendly, neighborhood toads.

The Literary Herpetile

A frog with scales!

When Alex Dove opened the 16th-century book on witchcraft, something black and scaly fell out
into her hands. Dove, who works in the books department at auctioneers Lyon &Turnbull, was
horrified when she realised it was the body of a frog, wizened by time and pressed flat between the
pages.

Perhaps it is not so surprising given the singular nature of the collection, and its owner. The painter
Robert Lenkiewicz, who died in 2002, had amassed thousands of volumes on philosophy,
witchcraft, superstition and the occult, including a "death room" in which he kept the embalmed
body of a former friend. By the time the Lyon & Turnbull team had finished cataloguing the books,
they had unearthed a frog, two toads and a lizard.

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From: The Way. An Ecological World-View. Edward Goldsmith (Themis Books, 1996)

Don’t eat the frogs

Page 262: “The homeotelic nature of predatory behaviour becomes clearer when one is faced with
the ecological consequences of removing predators from the ecosystems in which they would
normally live. In Bangladesh, for instance, frogs were being caught in vast numbers and exported to
satisfy the very considerable market for frogs’ legs in France and elsewhere. The result was a
population explosion of the insects on which the frogs fed, leading to a massive increase in the use
of pesticides for controlling them. Eventually, it is said that the cost of the pesticides became
greater than the income derived from selling the frogs.”

From: The Cabinet of Wonders web site.

Some Thoughts on the Common Toad

This is the title of a 1946 essay by no less than George Orwell of Animal Farm fame. The whole is
well-worth reading and there are many editions on-line. The two opening paragraphs are:

Before the swallow, before the daffodil, and not much later than the snowdrop, the common toad
salutes the coming of spring after his own fashion, which is to emerge from a hole in the ground,
where he has lain buried since the previous autumn, and crawl as rapidly as possible towards the
nearest suitable patch of water. Something - some kind of shudder in the earth, or perhaps merely a
rise of a few degrees in the temperature - has told him that it is time to wake up: though a few toads
appear to sleep the clock round and miss out a year from time to time - at any rate, I have more than
once dug them up, alive and apparently well, in the middle of the summer.

At this period, after his long fast, the toad has a very spiritual look, like a strict Anglo-Catholic
towards the end of Lent. His movements are languid but purposeful, his body is shrunken, and by
contrast his eyes look abnormally large. This allows one to notice, what one might not at another
time, that a toad has about the most beautiful eye of any living creature. It is like gold, or more
exactly it is like the golden-coloured semi-precious stone which one sometimes sees in signet-rings,
and which I think is called a chrysoberyl.

And 100 years before that more thoughts on the common toad

The Rev. Leonard Jenyns, who lived at Swaffham Bulbeck in Cambridgeshire and corresponded
with Charles Darwin, wrote in his Observations in Natural History: with an introduction on
habits of observing, as connected with the study of that science published in 1846:

No sooner is severity of the winter fairly broken (it will be seen afterwards I speak in reference to
former years) than toads appear in countless numbers at the bottoms of all our ditches, ponds, and
other stagnant waters, where previously there was not one to be seen. This congregating of
individuals, which, as is well known, is for the purpose of breeding, may be observed from the
middle or end of February (according to the weather), on to April or May. There is a large piece of
water at Bottisham Hall which formerly always abounded with toads at this season. Yet though I
have often narrowly watched the spot for some days previous to their appearance in the water, I
could never detect them in their passage towards it; or, in the idea of their passing the whole winter
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there, could I observe them going to it at any period of the autumn. What is also noticeable, (for
whether they pass the winter in the water or not, they do not pass the entire summer there,) I never
could observe any of the old toads coming ashore when the breeding season was over; their
disappearance seeming as mysterious as their appearance in the first instance. Why should the
coming of the young broods on land, after quitting the tadpole state, be so generally obvious, and
not that of their parents at the expiration of the breeding season? It is probably not so much due to
the superior numbers of the former, as to the movement being on their part a more simultaneous
one; and the old toads, at whatever season they take to, or quit, the water, must make the passage, I
conceive, at different times, or only a few together, and not in large parties, thus to escape
observation.

What has also always very much struck me is the great seeming disproportion between the numbers
of toads we observe in stagnant waters during the spring, and the scattered few that are to be found
on land at other periods of the year. Here and there one is turned up, or is seen slowly making its
way across our garden paths on a summer's evening; but we hardly find them in such plenty as
would lead us to suspect the existence of so many in the immediate neighbourhood, as are required
to stock our ponds at the above season in the way alluded to. We may infer from this how much
there is of life and enjoyment going on about us that we know nothing of: how, among the lower
animals, species may abound in certain localities to a degree that the naturalist himself is hardly
aware of, from not being sufficiently acquainted with their exact haunts.

.... and right up-to-date this ‘texted’ comment on My Space from ‘Chris’:

Have been 2 work 2 day . wot appened 2 th summer? found sum more slow worms av told work
force that th are baby adders an that they cud give them a nasty bite so that if they find any that they
will keep away from them

An appeal for help to our Chair, Jenny Bacon

 
Jenny  
 
We spoke earlier today regarding habitat management of a site in Hastings for the 
benefit of reptiles.  
 
The area is the receptor site for a small population of translocated common 
lizards. It is situated in central Hastings very close to the central railway 
station. The site is a section of railway embankment and top of embankment covering 
approximately 0.2ha. The top of the embankment covers approximately 0.1ha and is 
largely grassland with some patches of scrub, bramble and nettles. The embankment 
slopes are largely covered in woodland and scrub.  
 
We are searching for an organisation or somebody to undertake occasional habitat 
management of the site to prevent scrub encroachment of the grass areas. My feeling 
is this that this will involve cutting the bramble and scrub vegetation on an 
annual or biannual basis on the embankment top area. 
   

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Because the site is on Network Rail land those undertaking the work will need to be 
supervised by a Network Rail employee at all times. Would SARG or a SARG member be 
interested in undertaking long term habitat management of this site? 
 
Thank you for your assistance with this matter. 
 
With regards 
 
Daniel Watkins BSc (Hons) MSc AIEEM 
 
Ecologist 

watkins@fabermaunsell.com

Olympic newts
A population of endangered newts is being relocated to make way for the Olympic Park in east
London. Work is being undertaken to catch great crested newts living near the Eastway Cycle
Circuit in Stratford which is to be transformed into the Velopark. In order to secure planning
permission for the site the London Development Agency had to ensure the newts' safety. An
existing pond has been enhanced and wooden logs and foliage brought in to create an ideal habitat
for the newts. Great crested newts are the largest species of newt in Britain and are protected by
law.

Declining numbers

Their numbers have declined in the UK over recent years, due to the destruction and pollution of
their breeding sites and terrestrial habitat. Vincent Bartlett, the London Development Agency's
planning manager, said: "Ultimately this process has taken eight months because we have had to
wait for the soil to be damp and warm enough for the newts to come out, and get our whole
approach approved by Natural England. Once the relocation work is finished, work will begin on a
first class circuit."

It is hoped work will start on the circuit so it is ready in time for the New Year. Pete Lawrence who
is leading the newts' relocation said: "The new circuit will be a safe spot, providing habitat for them
to foliage for insects and grubs and hibernate in winter. "They come out at night when the cyclists
have left because it is too dry for them in the daytime."

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 Minutes of SARG AGM held at The Fishing Lodge, Berwick, East Sussex

on June 13th 2007

The meeting was chaired by Jenny Bacon, chair of the group.

1. Apologies for absence:
Alf and Iris Simpson, Fiona Dobbs, Janet Clayton, Dianne Simms.

2. Minutes of 2006 AGM meeting approved.

3. Matters arising
Amendment to constitution re. insurance. Need to be affiliated. The 2005/6 AGM agreed
the sub clause.
4. Group report
A very good year re toad crossings. Offham: ESCC didn't fund temporary fencing. Barry
Kemp & Rowland Griffin manned Tunbridge Wells site. Powdermill Trust recorded Great
Crested Newt. Report on Springwatch day at Stanmer Park. Large attendance and lots or
interest. Need for more recruitment and to define group aims.

5. Conference
Barry to approach Chris Packham’s agent, though we may have enough speakers.
Rowland suggested new display boards and T-shirts for conference.

6. Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre

All our records are now held here.
The chair congratulated Rowland and helpers at Stanmer show.
7. Membership
Only 2 new members in 2006. There are 29 single, 4 family 2 society, 11 honorary and 1
honorary family.

8. Any other business

Our chair, Jenny Bacon, said she would like someone else to take her place next year.

The meeting closed at 7.40 pm.

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Useful addresses etc.

SARG Web Site www.safari.com/reptile

SARG Weblog http://sussexamphibianandeptilegroup.blogspot.com

Chair & Toad Crossing Hammonds Green Cottage, Hammonds Green,

Coordinator Framfield, East Sussex
TN22 5QH
Jenny Bacon Tel: 01825 890236
E- mail: Jenny@baconjjgw.fsnet.co.uk

Secretary 42 Stanmer Avenue, Saltdean,

Rowland Griffin Brighton BN2 8QL
Tel: 07717 205072
E-mail: rowland_griffin@yahoo.co.uk
Minutes Secretary 20 South Street, East Hoathly,
Leila Simpson East Sussex BN8 6DS
Tel: 01825 840714
E-mail: simpsonaw@btworld.com
Treasurer 27 York Road, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 5JS
Alan Drummond Tel: 01293 535027
E-mail: alan.drummond@riscos.org

Surveys Officer Amblehurst, Nevill Road, Crowborough, East

Barry Kemp
Heathland Forum rep & Arlington
Advisory Committee Rep
Alf Simpson MBE
Sussex TN6 2RA
Tel: 01892 663942
E-mail: barry@viper.demon.co.uk
Hardanger, Littleworth, Partridge Green,
Horsham, West Sussex RH13 8JF
Tel: 01403 710694
E-mail: irisnalfsimpson@freenet.co.uk

SARG Library 9 Kingsway, Seaford ,

Janet Claydon East Sussex BN25 2NE
Tel: 01323 492066
Events 20 Palehouse Common, Framfield, Uckfield,
Linda Burnham East Sussex TN22 5QY
Tel: 01825 890852

Newsletter Editor South View, Churchland Lane, Sedlescombe,

Patrick Roper East Sussex TN33 0PF
Tel: 01424 870993
E-mail: patrick@prassociates.co.uk
South East Water The Lodge, Arlington Reservoir, Berwick,
Emma Goddard Polegate, East Sussex BN26 6TF
Tel: 01323 870810 Ext23
E-mail: egoddard@southeastwater.co.uk

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