The other day I was out walking int he woods and came across a very small pond FILLED with small frogs, 3-4 inch newts, and a bunch of tadpoles.
They were very cool to sit and watch.
I have a pond in my front yard (11ft x11ft and about 4 foot deep). Right now the pond has no fish just a bunch of water bugs. I’m planning on moving soon so I wasn’t going to stock it with koi or comets.
But I would like a few of these newts and frogs.
Do you suspect that relocating a few of these critters would work? I figured 2-3 frogs and 3-4 of the newts. Perhaps a few of the tadpoles.
I don’t want to do this if the general thought is these critters would die.
BTW: The pond in the front yard is man-made, not natural. The pond the critters are in is on commercial forest land and not park land. The forest company allows people to hunt on this land, so I would suspect taking a few critters is ok with them.
Garden ponds have become important habitats and breeding sites for many types of amphibian since their natural habitats are being destroyed. Such species usually thrive in man-made ponds; in fact, you might already have some in there and not know it. You might want to do a little more research before you decide to relocate. Here are some sites with good pond info for amphibians:
These sites are in the UK, but they feature the same species as most of the US, so the information is still good. Good luck, and keep us posted. You might also want to try some of the forums at:
They have a lot of information on amphibians and their care, especially in outdoor ponds and enclosures.
That said, most frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders are carnivorous- they eat mainly insects, insect larva, and various worms. They also thrive in slow-flowing or still fresh water. Make sure your pond has no chemicals, water treaters, chlorine, etc.- this will kill the animals. If you don’t already have some, you can add some large rocks for the animals to bask on and to get out of the water. Koi fish will sometimes eat small amphibians, so they’re out if you want your newts to stay. But the waterbugs will provide a nice food source.
The frogs or tadpoles will likely do OK. Newts are pickier about their environment. I’d expect them to die or leave unless you have similar shade and moisture in your front yard as in the forest.
-I wonder where all the resident zoologists have gotten off to They can’t all be off on field trips can they ?
Eh, you’re worried that the Paper Company might catch you stealing some of their tadpoles? I doubt whether they’ll care. I doubt whether they even know they’re there.
Go for it.
One caveat: there probably isn’t anything in your brand-new manmade pond for them to eat, so don’t be too depressed if they don’t survive.
Depending on the “naturalness” of your pond, they may do very well and stay, or they could disappear overnight. I have ponds here too, and though I haven’t stocked amphibians in them (mine all have liners so they couldn’t burrow into the mud in the winter… and they’d freeze to death :(), I’ve asked some other pond people in the past.
As was mentioned, if you’re close to their own pond, have a fairly wild landscape (not surrounded by parking lots and 24 hour street lights), and your pond is to their liking, some of them may eventually find their way into your pond on their own. You can stock them in yourself, but there are no guarentees.
Make sure there is enough food and cover for them - a show pond is usually not the best for this as they have steep banks and a very open/clear overall look and not much living stuff in them. These little guys will most likely crawl out and/or sit along the bank at times, and a sloping bank with some brush or plants will be better than a vertical one where the short lawn or slate paving stone buts up against it.
Also, if they don’t like the pond, they’ll either get out and leave or die there… I’ve heard some frogs can be difficult to keep in a new area that they weren’t hatched in, though stay more often if you hatch them out in there. I’d say take a few and drop them in; see what happens!
Ok. Today we went and fetched a few of the newts. Seems they are rough-skin newts common to the pacific northwest area. (I also learned NOT to eat them as they are toxic)
So far, they seem pretty happy. They are just swimming around and doing their newt thing.
I floated a few large pieces of wood in the pond and within a few minutes a couple climbed up and onto their floating islands. One of the pieces of wood has grass and other things growing out of it and they seem to like that one the best.
We live about 2 blocks from a river to the west and 2 blocks to a smaller river to the east so I figured if they really hate it here they might just move to the river.
If I seem then getting thin or if one dies, I’ll take them back where I found them.
It was a bit colder today then the other day so I didn’t see any tadpoles or frogs. Just newts. And TONS of them.
They really are cool little critters. They move really slow on land but in the water they can really move. Very graceful.
The Ph in the main part of their pond was about 7.4. There was a more shallow section where I saw newts and that read at 6.6 (perhaps because it had lots of more leaves and dead plant matter). The Ph in my pond is right at 6.8. I figured that was ok.
I guess we’ll see how many are still there tomorrow.
Rough-Skinned Newts ( Taricha torosa ) are QUITE toxic. Same poison as in puffer fish ( variously known as tarichatoxin and tetradotoxin ). Wash your hands after handling them. But don’t be afriad to handle them ( though not any more than necessary, so as not to stress them ), it won’t penetrate skin and the quantities aren’t huge. But I know of a couple of idiot frat-members many years back that ended up with pumped stomachs after swallowing some in a hazing ritual :rolleyes:.
They are very hardy and make decent pets ( my mother kept a couple for years ). I’ll note that in California at least that you are required to have a fishing license to collect most herps on non-regulated land. But I wouldn’t sweat it particularly. This is far from an endangered species.
However the one little potential problem with keeping them in an open pond, is that they are like salmon - They have a very highly developed “breeding compass” and will return to their birth pond to breed with a startling degree of accuracy. We’re talking multiple mile migrations ( pretty impressive for such a little critter ). So they might wander off on you, when adults, come breeding season.
They also might just wander off anyway. Newts in the genus Taricha have two morphs. Breeding, which is aquatic, with slick skin and a paddle-tail, and non-breeding, which is more or less terrestrial, with dryish, rough skin and a rounded tail. Left to their own devices they will morph into their terrestrial stage soon enough and wander out overland in search of food. When breeding season hits, they wander back to their ponds and enter their aquatic phase again ( it’s quite neat, really ).
The tadpoles, quite frankly, might be better bets for year-round residency. Treefrogs ( and it is at least 70% likely those were Pacific Tree Frogs out here on the left coast - the other most likely possibility would be Western Toads - Bullfrogs are more likely in slightly larger bodies of water and other species are rarer ) are semi-aquatic throughout there adult life ( though you’d be amazed at how high they’ll climb into trees and whatnot sometimes when hunting )and are more likely to stay in the same place once transplanted, at least if there is food to be had.
They can’t all be off on field trips can they ?