What can you do?
Everyone can make some small contribution to amphibian and reptile conservation. Even if you have no time or suffer other physical limitations as simple a thing as joining an organisation which is dedicated to herpetofauna conservation thus assisting funding, or you can donate similarly.
You can assist in monitoring populations of animals or even just report those you happen to see. You can also become actively involved in habitat restoration and involvement.
More details illustrating a few of these options are given below:-
Donate/Fundraising.
The Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust welcomes donations to help with the never-ending task of furthering the recovery of our native herpetofauna. Alternatively, you might wish to undertake some fundraising activity. In either case follow this link to find out how you can help
Join an organisation.
- You could become a "Frog Friend" with the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust. For as little as £15 per annum you will receive a newsletter, a free guide to our reptiles and amphibians, invitations to events and much more. Yet the vast majority of that money actually goes to conservation work.
- To combine an interest in our native herpetofauna with actual work towards their conservation you could become a member of the Amphibian and Reptile Groups of the UK where you can meet like minded people and join in habitat management tasks, monitoring and so on.
Maintain habitat
- Both of the above organisations often have various tasks which need to be undertaken, clearing scrub and rubbish, pond clearing etc.. Simply get in touch with them to see about joining one of these task groups (most of these are undertaken in the winter months). Also it might be worth finding out what your local Wildlife Trust does.
- Make your garden wildlife friendly
Observe the animals
Once again this can be done through these organisations. But, additionally you can
- participate in the National Amphibian & Reptile Recording Scheme where you will be given the necessary training and allocated a random 1km square to investigate and report on
- keep an eye open for alien herpetofauna species and report via the dedicated website set up for this purpose at http://www.alienencounters.org.uk
- simply report any amphibian or reptile you see using, for example http://www.herpetofauna.co.uk or http://www.arguk.org/ .
This is not an exhaustive list but gives you an idea of the many things you can do to help our native reptiles and amphibians.