In my garden there is a large pampass grass, within which, a pair of ducks usually nest. Yesterday I found that they were nesting up by the house so decided to check out the pampass grass... in the cup of the grass was a whole pile of dead, mutilated frogs (unfortunately one was still alive, although horribly mangled, which I decided to put out of its misery). On further investigation, there was a second patch of them within the grass. I removed them to ensure that there weren't any other half alive specimens within them and counted a total of 17 frogs. What would have done this? I know that ducks, snakes etc eat frogs, but I can't think of anything that might store them like this. Does anyone have any ideas or come across this before?
Hello GillBillie, welcome to the forums. That's very strange, I've never heard anything like it before. Most animals just take what they need to eat, the only animals I can think that don't are foxes (do they eat frogs) or mink? Mink tend to kill whatever is around so they could be the possible suspects.
What a horrible thing to happen! My guess would be mink too although that is a complete guessed based on the fact they kill more tehan they need to eat. Have you seen or heard of any mink in the local area?
Hmmm, I haven't seen any mink but I live quite close to the river Uck, so it's always a possibility! I will keep an eye out and also monitor the pampass grass to see if the activity continues. It was very strange and quite horrible... I needed to sit down and have a cup of tea afterwards!
It sounds like you should report this incident to Froglife (
http://www.froglife.org). They might be able to shed more light on something like this. What an awful thing to find though and just when the frogs are mating too!
That's terrible! As Cazzagirl says it would be a good idea to contact Froglife or even your local wildlife trust as they would be happy to help uncover the mystery.
hi gillbillie what an awful find,would a heron or any other large bird kill frogs,its strange with you finding so many.
I agree with cazza,i think you should report it too
Maybe you should get a wildlife watch CCTV and watch the pampas grass..
Herons do indeed eat frogs. It's possible that they might cache food?
Kingfisher
Unfortunately, I think that the mink suggestion is correct. The pampass grass is on an island, I went down to check it this morning and there were more frogs... many more! I searched the island and found footprints and scat at the water's edge that is suspiciously mink... I also found an incredible number of dead frogs... 93! This includes a number around the edge of the water on the mainland. I can understand the stores of frogs in the pampass but there were a huge amount just half eaten, scattered around. There were also a few that were still alive, which is horrible. This also explains why the Moorhens have disappeared! Thank you to everyone who has responded... I now need to work out what to do to try and discourage it! If anyone has any ideas, I would be most grateful.
Trapping seems to be the most effective way of getting rid of the mink--but I know nothing about the legality of that method for you...
Kingfisher
I think you'd be better off contacting an organisation such as the RSPCA, as they're more likely to get permission to trap and remove this naughty minx, if there are any legality concerns.
Seeing as it's devastating the frog population in the area, and impacting on the moorhens too, I shouldn't think it will be difficult to get them to come out and help.
RSPCA is definitely the way to go, as mink are notoriously dificult to catch and are actually pretty clever when it comes to avoiding traps. You're also unlikely to see it so shooting isn't reall an option.