Sightings of the common frog uncommon in many areas

There have been no recorded sightings of the common frog in many parts of the country over the last seven years.

Ireland has one species of frog and while we have a “very healthy population” of the protected amphibian, people living in the northern half of Ireland are not recording as many sightings as people elsewhere.

“If you draw a line from Galway to Dublin, there is a lot less recording from above that line. So there is not much reporting in the north-west and north-eastern midlands,” said Liam Lysaght, National Biodiversity Data Centre director.

“There is a lot of reporting in the south-east and in Kerry and Cork,” he said.

Mr Lysaght said that the centre had posted a map on social media showing where the common frog had been spotted to encourage “citizen scientists” from all over Ireland to contribute to their data bank.

“We had tweeted a map showing locations of sightings. We’d encourage people to record sightings. We are the repository for all data on wildlife in Ireland. We have a data portal system and we produce dynamic maps from that,” he said.

Mr Lysaght said the frog is a sign of a healthy environment as they live in wetlands, which are important because of the role they play when it comes to flooding.

“Wetlands are vitally important and there are more wetlands here than in many countries in the EU. There are a lot of problems with flooding but wetlands act like a sponge. Retaining wetlands and woodland areas is much better for the hydrological cycle.”

Sightings of wildlife can be reported to records.biodiversityireland.ie.