Dear All.
This is a very late reply to a request back in May from Jennifer
Thoms. I've just discovered 300 lost emails. Jennifer asked about
dead toads found partly defleshed in Scotland....
I have found toads like this on Raasay, but only with the legs and
arms eaten, and with empty "trousers" of skin. I didn't know what
caused it but suspected a bird. Since then, i have heard several
similar reports - all in scotland i think - of dead and dying toads lying
by ponds, some with limbs missing, some more seriously defleshed.
Again, they had their leg-skin turned inside out. One newspaper
report even quoted someone who couldn't believe how callous
people could be to kill toads in cold blood. The cuts were
apparently from a sharp implement and supposedly not caused by
animal teeth.
Well, i've heard that otters are the most likely culprits. I can onl;y
guess that after stumbling upon a food bonanza they set out to
maim as many as possible before they "get away". Disliking the
skin, they appear to skin them before eating limbs. Otters do have
pretty sharp teeth.
I only wish that when people do find masses of dead toads they'd
bag them up and contact a zooarchaeologist! What with all the
toads-on-roads fatalities there'd be enough for every student in the
country to have a skellie!
All the best,
Chris Gleed-Owen
P.S. If anyone in the UK sees mass frog/toad mortality, please
contact Froglife in Halesworth: 01986 874744, or Jim Foster at
English Nature in Peterborough: 01733 455251.
(bit late for this year i know)
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