Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've asked this before and got no response so I thought I'd try again. Has anyone ever read about a near infestation of Miwife toads, Alytes obstetricans, in the UK? I read it somewhere a couple of years back then never heard any more about it. They are of course native to europe and are not native to the UK. Any ideas?

I have nothing on an 'infestation', but this is the only UK press that I've got on Midwife Toads.

DAILY MAIL (Hull, UK) 13 May 99 Student with too much time finds amphibian facts toad die for!
Female toads longing for more sex will ripen their eggs quicker if they hear the call of a male Majorcan midwife toad, an whacky researcher has discovered.
Student Jerry Lea, from Milton Keynes, studied three groups of female Majorcan midwife toads which had ripening eggs in their ovaries, said New Scientist magazine.
He played a tape of the male call to one group, a tape of a different species to another and nothing to the third group.
After a month, females in the first group had plenty of ripe and ready eggs while the toads in the other groups had hardly any.
Mr Lea believes the sound of the male call helps release hormones in the part of the brain that controls reproductive behaviour.
He said the bizarre finding makes sense, given the sex roles of Majorcan midwife toads.
Males are in short supply because after fertilising the eggs they are celibate for a month while they raise their young on their own.
'The males carry the eggs down the cliff faces to the pools where they develop into tadpoles,' said Mr Lea.
Meanwhile, the females squabble over the remaining males, who show they are available by calling.
http://www.thisishull.co.uk/scripts/edarchdisplay.asp?section=National news&ID=370&source=NAT

THE INDEPENDENT (London, UK) 05 March 00 Political correctness breeds success for non-sexist toad
Britain's most politically correct animal is flourishing, thanks to its New Male way of life.
While more unreconstructed amphibians are struggling to cope with the disappearance of countryside ponds, the midwife toad is expanding rapidly - and experts attribute part of its success to the non- sexist role of the males. They "stay at home", carrying the spawn, and leave the female free to take other mates and produce more young. As a result, the midwife's numbers are expanding dramatically. Introduced from France to Bedford in 1904, it has moved to outlying villages and is now found in the neighbouring counties of Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire, as well as Norfolk and Sheffield. Herpetologists believe there are thousands of colonies, many with hundreds of toads.
Meanwhile, the midwife's more stick-in-the-mud rivals are suffering a dramatic decline in numbers. Most of them rely on ponds, and in some parts of the country farmers have replaced 99 per cent of ponds with standpipes and troughs. Intensive farming has also removed hedgerows and coppices, important for shelter. The natterjack toad is particularly at risk, while the pool frog became extinct in 1998.
By contrast, the lifestyle of the midwife - alytes obstetricans - gives it an edge. The male carries the egg-strings wrapped around his hind legs, keeping them warm and humid. When he senses the eggs are about to hatch, he makes his way to the edge of the pond and deposits the nascent tadpoles.
This means the spawn is protected from sudden frosts, which might kill the spawn of toads that leave their eggs in the water to mature. It is also better equipped to cope with unpredictable weather patterns associated with global warming. The male's taking on of ante- natal duties leaves the female free to seek other mates and reproduce twice as often as rival species.
Helen Muir-Howie, of the Bedfordshire Natural History Society, which monitors the species in its stronghold colonies, said: "The midwife toad is flourishing. They make sure the eggs have the best chance of survival by keeping them out of frosts and away from the mercy of the elements. They seem to invest a bit more care in reproduction than other species."
The exemplary behaviour of the midwife toad does not stop there. His mating techniques also appear to be a cut above those of other amphibians, relying on the quality of his croak - a distinctive bleep, which has been likened to the noise of the hour pips on the radio - to attract a partner. The midwife toad is also a good neighbour: unlike other introduced species, such as the grey squirrel, it does not appear to be aggressive and seems to happily share its habitat.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Environment/2000-03/toad050300.shtml

LEICESTER MERCURY (UK) 10 September 03 Have I Toad You Lately That I Love You? (Louise Downie)
It's enough to drive you hopping mad! A love-sick toad's night-time calls for a mate has brought months of sleepless nights to an entire neighbourhood.
Night after night and week after week the amorous amphibian's high-pitched bleeps have been waking up the residents of Meadow Street, in Market Harborough.
But now the exhausted householders are finally catching up on their slumber after the culprit was caught - but not without a struggle.
A night-time stake-out by environmental health officers led them to a back garden where the horny toad was holed up in an ornamental fountain.
The officers had to dismantle the fountain before finally getting their hands on what has now been identified as a Midwife toad - so-called because it is the male that carries the hatching spawn.
The appropriately named Paul Anger, of Meadow Street, was one of dozens of people who called Harborough District Council's environmental team to complain about the bleeping.
He said: "I had to really badger the council something terrible because they did not seem to take it seriously. "But when you are losing money when you are oversleeping and late for work it gets a bit more serious.
"It sounded like an electric beacon or something like that.
"We laugh about it now, but it was every five seconds and it came to the point where it was driving me mad.
"It is difficult to put into words how loud it actually was. I could even hear it over the television.
"Even though the weather was really hot, I had to sleep with the windows shut."
Neighbour Ann Farrar said: "It did annoy you because it was like a submarine noise, but I managed to get used to it. It is according to how you sleep, I suppose.
"I didn't know toads could make a noise like that."
Council officer Tony Cawthorne was the man who tracked down Romeo.
He said: "It took us two and a half hours. We had caught a couple of common toads by mistake because we didn't know which one was causing the noise.
"We caught him once and turned the light out to hear another bleep at the end of the garden. He had escaped again. But the darker it got, the more frequent the noise and we soon tracked him down."
He said Romeo was a rare visitor to Leicestershire who may have arrived from an isolated colony in Northampton.
Leicester Museums experts are now searching for a new home for Romeo. It is illegal to release him into the wild in this country because he is not a native species.
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=42629&command=displayContent&sourceNode=42628&contentPK=6987761

HARBOROUGH & LUTTERWORTH MAIL (UK) 17 September 03 Toad is frog-marched away – after deafening neighbours!
Deafening 'bleeps' from what sounded like a submarine radar, kept residents awake for weeks while experts tried to trace its source.
Families in Meadow Street, Harborough, had tossed and turned for nights on end, but no-one could work out where the noise was coming from.
It wasn't until environmental experts got involved that the noisy 'culprit' was finally routed out.
But the nocturnal nuisance wasn't what anyone expected. It was in fact found to be coming from a toad – one never before seen in Leicestershire.
After a thorough search, the rare 'Midwife' Toad was found in a garden, lurking under a water fountain.
Experts then 'frog-marched' the lone toad from the premises.
Environmental health officer at Harborough District Council, Tony Cawthorne said: "The sound was similar to an asdic radar on a submarine and could be heard at a distance of 20 to 30 metres.
"The noise could be heard at twilight and continued throughout the night, keeping residents awake for several weeks."
Having excluded all man-made sources, the council sought the assistance of experts at the New Walk Museum in Leicester.
A further site visit by council environmental health officers and Jan Dawson from the museum resulted in finding the Midwife Toad.
The investigation was initially hampered by the presence of several common toads but they were placed into buckets and the toad gave itself away by its bleeping call.
It is thought the bleeping started in the area about three years ago and as the toad moved gardens, one neighbour said they would draw up a petition to get the amphibian removed.
Jan said it was a mystery how the toad got there, adding it could have escaped from somewhere.
She said: "It's a continental species and so is an alien here. We are not allowed to let alien species go back into the wild, but he is being looked after and might go to Twycross Zoo."
http://www.harboroughtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=760&ArticleID=657740