WildLine - your wildlife information service

Red admiral butterfly by Natalie Rogers Welcome to WildLine, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust's free wildlife information service. WildLine can answer your wildlife queries, help identify plants and animals that you have seen and provide a wide range of information on the habitats and species found in Hampshire and the Island. If you have a wildlife question, please get in touch*!

tel: 01489 774446

email: wildline@hwt.org.uk

If you have seen a plant or animal and would like to report it to us, please visit our species group webpage to find out how to submit your wildlife records.

*Please note that although we aim to respond to your query as soon as possible, the WIldLine service is not manned 24/7 and so we may not be able to provide you with an immediate response.

WildLine Question of the Month

Why are the frogs in my pond dying? Common frog by Natalie Rogers

Whilst most frogs leave the pond during the winter and find a terrestrial hibernation site, some frogs stay in the pond and can survive the winter fully submerged. However, the continued minus temperatures that we experienced in January and February would have been difficult to survive. Also, with so many frogs in one pond and ice on the surface, there may have been a depletion of the oxygen in the water and a build up of noxious gases. These frogs can take up to a week to float to the surface of the pond. There are several diseases that do affect common frogs and these have different symptoms. If you would like to receive a factsheet about amphibian health and disease please contact WildLine.

WildLine has a regular feature in the Trust's magazine NaturalWorld which is sent to all of our members. WildLine questions and answers from past editions of the magazine can be downloaded below.