Go with the Toad
It's been about a month and a half since the project was successfully funded and although we aimed to have them in the lab sooner, all of our samples are now in one place and ready to go! Thanks again to all of our funders that helped make everything come together - we hope to have some interesting results to share with you all soon enough! There have also been a couple of small project developments that I'd like to share with you quickly that I'm sure you'll be interested in.
Unfortunately I haven't had the time to make a new map but we've recently confirmed the presence of midwife toads in Dinnington, South Yorkshire. Below is a map from earlier on in the project, for those of you who don't know know where Dinnington is, the new site is situated within the Worksop cluster. Word of mouth from the locals suggest that the toads in Dinnington escaped from the nearby Tropical Butterfly House but seeing as it is in the epicentre of midwife toad populations in that area, it's likely the toads have been moved from somewhere closeby. It will be interesting to find out exactly where the toads are from, we'll be looking to survey this population in the coming spring (along with the others).
Finally, I've been invited to give a talk at the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Amphibian and Reptile Group (HIWARG) AGM about the project. There are historic reports of midwife toads in Hampshire but no definitive evidence has yet been uncovered. By partnering with HIWARG, we hope to determine whether or not midwife toads ever were present in Hampshire and whether or not they are still there. The event is open to all so if you're in the area on November 23rd, why not come along? You can find all of the details here. This will likely be the last project update for a while now until we get some actual data to keep your eyes peeled for then. Thanks again to everyone who donated to the project, we couldn't have done it without you!
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