Amorous amphibians feel urge to mate by moonlight
It’s not just werewolves who are driven wild by the luminescent glow of a full moon. Researchers have discovered that the lunar phenomenon also brings out the beast in amphibians with frogs, toads and newts all over the world apparently sharing a common predilection for mating by moonlight.
Biologist Rachel Grant of the Open University first observed the trend when she was studying Italian salamanders in 2005.
“Although this might have been a coincidence, the following month I went along the same route every day at dusk and found that the numbers of toads on the road increased as the Moon waxed, to a peak at full Moon, and then declined again,” she told the BBC.
Grant continued to study the salamanders’ habits for a further two years, as well as collating her results with data from studies of the mating patterns of toads in an Oxfordshire pond and Welsh newts.
Other research has also found evidence of the trend in Javanese toads.
“We now have evidence of lunar cycles affecting amphibians in widespread locations. We definitely think that moon phase has been an overlooked factor in most studies of amphibian reproductive timing,” said Grant.
“We think this may be a worldwide phenomenon. However, differences between species in ecology and reproductive strategy may mean that not all amphibians are affected in the same way. This is something we would like to investigate further.”
With amphibian populations in decline worldwide, understanding the creatures’ mating patterns could be crucial to ensuring their survival.
Thousands of frogs and toads are squashed each year in the UK as they cross busy roads to reach breeding sites, prompting campaigns such as the “Toads on Roads” initiative which maps amphibian crossings on Google Earth and recruits volunteers to ensure the creatures are safely escorted across the road.
Toads on Roads is a campaign run by the newly formed conservation super-charity, the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust, formed following a merger this month between Froglife and the Herpetological Conservation Trust.
