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A PROJECT WHICH has seen over 9,000 natterjack toadlets released in their native habitats has been described as the “future of agriculture” by one of the farmers involved.
The joint project between the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and Fota Wildlife Park involves releasing endangered natterjack toadlets into ponds which have been specially created for them by local farmers.
The conservation efforts have focused on the toad’s natural habitat so that the species can breed and thrive.
It’s hoped that this will help protect the natterjack toadlets and enable them to return to its natural habitat.
The project began seven years ago and so far this year, over 1,600 toadlets have been released.
This afternoon, 200 were released onto Tommy Reidy’s farm in Castlegregory, Co Kerry.
“I was part of the initial NPWS Pond Creation scheme that was running a number of years back to set up the ponds,” Tommy Reidy told The Journal.
“I have two ponds on my grounds near a sensitive nature area where these toads would have existed at one point and it’s about a kilometre away from an existing population of toads.
“So they’re trying to encourage the toads to come back to this habitat that we’ve created for them so that there’s a viable population,” said Reidy.
Reidy described the initial scheme, set up around ten years ago, as a “learning curve” that helped the NPWS to “understand the full lifecycle and habits of the toad, and why they were doing things in certain habitats that they weren’t doing in others”.
“People that were involved in the original scheme were given priority for the new scheme,” said Reidy, “because there’s a certain amount of learning already incurred there and it’s a natural progression to the next phase.”
The newer scheme involves NPWS staff collecting spawn and eggs from ponds, which are brought to Fota Wildlife Park where they are cared for and reared in special holding tanks.
This approach, known as captive rearing, has been shown to reduce their mortality rate to as low as 25%.
The natterjack has a mortality rate of 90% in the wild.
Following metamorphosis, the toadlets are returned to their native Kerry.
“Foto Wildlife Park can give the spawn the kind of attention that it needs in those early stages,” said Reidy.
“One of the big issues with cultivating in the natural environment, where they don’t have a very strong population, is that there’ll be a high mortality rate because there’s so much competition and they’re eaten by other predators like dragonflies.
“The chances of them surviving in an area where there isn’t a viable population is small.”
In order to survive, the toads need access to shallow, sunny ponds to breed and avoid predators.
Reidy added: “They cultivate and care for the frog in a controlled environment, and then Foto brings them back to where they originate from, like my site, and release them as we did today.
“The hope is that they will take hold there and expand over time.
“There are very viable populations not far from myself and we’re trying to spread them around to help re-establish the toads where they once were.”
Reidy told The Journal that numerous factors can impact upon the toad, “like pond size and that fact that some of the ponds will dry out in certain times of the year and impact the lifecycle of the toad”.
However, the weather this year has been favourable for the natterjack.
Dr Ferdia Marnell from the NPWS explained: “Unlike last year, this year the weather has worked in favour of the natterjack, with a wet spring followed by warm temperatures in June.
“We saw the successful metamorphosis of toadlets in high numbers around Castlegregory.
“This is good news for a boom or bust species like the natterjack. We hope to see this year’s toadlets return here to breed over the coming years and reclaim their former home.”
Speaking to The Journal, farmer Tommy Reidy notes that the toads are quite noisy when in their breeding period.
“When the toads are breeding, you can hear them from quite some distance away,” said Reidy.
“They’re very loud when they are doing their mating calls and you can hear them from over a mile away on a calm evening.”
Reidy added that natterjacks “only exist in certain small pockets in the southwest of Ireland” and noted that the “NPWS is proactive in trying to preserve those spots that exist”.
Reidy also said he is happy to play his small part in helping the endangered species.
“I think the future of agriculture is going to be a lot more in that conservation space, particularly for smaller farms,” Reidy told The Journal.
“There’s a major role to be played for smaller farms to conserve biodiversity on the farms and if there’s an endangered species in the vicinity, to try projects like this that can pay the farmer to preserve the wildlife and habitat for these endangered species.”
Reidy said other local farmers are joining the scheme and he described it as an “opportunity to build a community of people who have an understanding of the requirements involved to successfully breed a viable population”.
“There are other farmers in the vicinity that are involved and the more we have learned about the toad and its breeding habits, the easier it becomes and we have a higher success rate for breeding.
“It’s very important for farmers to be involved in those consultations and that the farmer understands what needs to be done to maximise the chances of survival of the species.
“It’s a good scheme and hopefully there’ll be continued engagement from farmers.”
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The Irish people need to show solidarity with the unions fighting to protest the wages and conditions of ordinary workers. However, the unions also need to broaden their outlook beyond their own sectional interests and demonstrate solidarity with the people.
The ESB unions had the ability to stop the imposition of the Home Tax robbery dead in its tracks this year by depriving the Revenue’s computers of the electricity they needed to implement the Troika’s bond holder tax. The An Post workers had the power to stop the delivery of the ECB’s extortion letters before they dropped through a single letterbox.
The unions and everybody else needs to wake up and start thinking in terms of ‘We’ rather than ‘I’. The country is being looted to pay for the failure of speculative financial capitalism and we won’t stop this until we stand together.
That’s an excellent statement coddler.
Are u serious coddler …. Really u think esb and the post office should have, in order to “prevent” the property tax not so the job they are paid to do
Well said Coddler
Do you really think the country is something we can just plug out and then plug back in? Property tax was going to hit us in some shape or form
Still bleating on I see Coddler. Jim Larkin would be proud of you
I’ll take that as a compliment Josh.
L-plate,
They call it a property tax but in reality it’s a tax on Irish peoples’ homes in order to pay for the failure speculative financial capitalism.
Unions care about themselves and to hell with everyone else- nothing we about unions
A home is a property you clown
@ Coddler
Thought you might
Well said Shane… honestly some people really need to get real and act like adults when posting comments. Coddler is the type of person that blames the world for their problems..
Great I’m coming home on the 17th for Christmas, reminds me why I left
Glad to read that hope is appearing in this dispute as it will save the customers and esb work force The over paid union leaders should have done more to steer the workers away from this threatened action in the first place.
We had no power for 6 days over Christmas 2010 & we didnt picket the ESB… Why should they hold the country to ransom over a pension? Many organisations have moved from DB to DC and many private sector workers dont even get a pension. Due to the size of the organisation a pension is guaranteed for them, which is a great benefit!
The chance of the esb workers pulling the plug over the christmas is non existant . The public opinion is so against them that they would be crucified if this happened. Imagine old people freezing in their house. Forget it ,it won’t happen a deal will be done
Will there light at the end of the tunnel?? .Will there be power for the people?? The workers in ESB would wanna be right wa&kers to feck up Xmas for the whole country.Its yer problems ye sort it out…Just leave the switch on for Xmas
pure shame on esb if they pull the plug
Well put coddler. More orchestrated strike actions required to put this government on its knees. They should be worried about what we might do next, not the other way around.
Go on strike for gods sake… Yere pensions will be worthless in a few years time anyway
Actually the pension is on target to break even in ten years. It’s just greed that makes them want the 1.6 billion hole filled now.
No it’s not the filling of the hole it’s the definition of the scheme DB or DC
It is obvious that IF that email is genuine it was not sent by the ESB but rather by the sinister careless unionised workers at ESB. I just want to make public that I have changed supplier, I am no longer a ESB customer and you know what? I’ve got better rates too, I know it won’t make a difference and I am still vulnerable to power cuts on the 16th, but at least I have the peace of mind that I will not contribute to the ESB workers wages and pension. Lets all change suppliers, that will show them!
Juan,
Unfortunately you should have checked the rates before you changed supplier… The fact is that suppliers charge you a higher ground rate that ESB even with lower unit rates you still will end up paying more… ha ha…
Also, regardless who your supplier is a portion will still go through ESB networks for the maintenance, repair and service of the networks.
So you loose……
This is all a perfect example of how greedy unions and their members are, they are an absolute disgrace
If they go on strike then everyone should stop paying their bills! Cancel your Direct Debits people.
No need to be insulting Max!
Not an insult at all but a simple reply to a simple comment!!
Ogle = Scargill
During the 1930′s the English based Trade Unions had a stranglehold on our workers and one the the greatest but unsung of our Trade Union leaders took them on. Jack Cassidy founded the National Engineering Union which is now swallowed up in the mess that our unions has become. My father was involved and Jack was often in our house I picked up a lot from him. The most important thing he said was that ‘If they go out the gate then I have failed’ He hated using the strike weapon and there is a lesson there for the ESB unions right now. If you go out that gate then your union leaders have failed you.
Just fire then all it really is that simple
How crazy a comment is that… maybe we could move Ireland a little further south and get some of the weather Spain gets… it is really that simple…….
There are quiet a number of comments with correct facts and there are quiet a few with incorrect information.
I am a full time ESB employee. I will not be drawn into a them and us debate nor will I try to patronise people with ideas of me living on the bread line.
My salary is approx 50K. I cannot apologise for this as I submitted an application form did an interview and the rest is history. We all make choices in life.
I really feel for people without work in this country and the leaders of the country do little to improve things but they pay the German piper without a thought.
It must be hard for people to see why there is a threat of strike but when there is the real possibility of nothing for you or your family on retirement. To be honest its hard to think of that day. But without a resolve it will happen.
I’m surprised that the Government haven’t stepped in to resolve this, being the owners of the company. Staff in general have no faith in senior management for what they have done to the ordinary workers and in a round about way the public.
We all really want a resolve ASAP because if the lights go out in the country then our lights will go out as well. Even ESB workers have families..
Why should the customers be in the dark because ESB workers are having problems with their pensions?The customers are paying already for their fat wages.
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