Helen Meredith - EDGE Conservationist

What is an amphibian?
Amphibian is the name given to the group of animals that consist of frogs, salamanders, toads, and caecillians. Caecillians are worm-like animals. ‘Amphi’ means ‘both’ and and ‘bian’ means ‘life’ (this refers to the dual life-cycle of an amphibian). Amphibians were the first animals to make the transition from water to land. If there had been no amphibians, then there would have been no dinosaurs and also no humans. They have therefore played a vital part in our evolution. The EDGE team are currently working to try and conserve the greatest variety of amphibians as efficiently as possible. Those that are on the brink of extinction have very few close relatives. The largest amphibian is the Chinese Giant Salamander, which grows to 6ft long!

We live in the London suburbs and, although we don’t have a pond at home, we still have frogs. Why is this?
Frogs have almost a sixth sense for finding water. They roam great distances in order to find it. So they must be attracted by some sort of water source in the garden.

How many babies does a frog have?
This depends on the success rate of the eggs. Some salamanders will actually give birth to live young.

I once stroked a Fire Salamander and it was cold. Why?
They are cold blooded animals, and are closely related to fish, but unlike fish they breathe through their skin. Being cold blooded means that they cannot generate their own heat like a mammal can, and so if this salamander had not been sitting in the sun or a warm place then it would have a low body temperature and feel cold to touch.

Why are invertebrates not focussed on by EDGE?
The EDGE programme is still developing. EDGE cannot create new lists of endangered species until a family tree has been completed to determine which ones have a higher conservation status. This is very difficult to do for invertebrates.

What is the difference between frogs and toads?
Toads are drier as they mostly use their lungs to breathe, rather than their skin like frogs do. Toads crawl and frogs jump when moving. Toads also have more warts

Which amphibian is the most poisonous?
The most poisonous is the Golden Poison Arrow Frog. This is not just the most poisonous amphibian, it’s the most poisonous animal in the world. It produces a deadly nerve toxin, which is released from its skin. This poison can lead to heart failure or fibrillation. One of these frogs has enough poison to kill a hundred adult humans. The Columbian Indians used to wipe their arrows (hence the name) on the skin of these frogs so that they killed whatever animal the arrow hit. These frogs are a bright yellow colour, which puts off any other animal from trying to eat them as bright colours on animals generally suggests that they are poisonous. Amphibians, however, come in all different colours, but this doesn’t mean that they are all poisonous.

What interested you in working with amphibians?
So few people are working to conserve them and they are fascinating creatures. There are also lots of unknown illnesses killing them and research needs to be done to determine what they are and how to prevent them.

Why are Mountain Chicken Frogs called Mountain Chicken Frogs?
Where they live, on the Caribbean islands of Dominica and Montserrat, they are used in traditional West Indian recipes, and as their name suggests, they taste like chicken. They are also found in mountainous regions, hence the ‘mountain’ part of the name.

Find out more about the EDGE programme

Helen explains more about EDGE amphibians in the video below: