Moving frogspawn 'can damage'

Shifting frogspawn from pond to pond can cause serious problems for nature, Cornwall Wildlife Trust has warned.

The trust says that transferring spawn to other locations carries other organisms with it, which may include diseases and invasive exotic plants.

It has already experienced problems in Cornwall with controlling invasive pond plants such as parrot's feather and Australian stonecrop.

Nic Harrison-White, the trust's Information co-ordinator, said the problem pond plants get into ponds through "donations of spawn".

Choking

He added: "When these plants enter the countryside they can cause significant damage by choking up ponds, waterways and drainage systems leading to flooding and often smothering our native flora."

The trust receives numerous calls from householders who say they have too much spawn in their garden ponds.  

Mr Harrison-White says this is a misunderstanding. "Amphibians have evolved a strategy of laying huge numbers of eggs. This is because just about every animal in a pond eats tadpoles!

"By producing such a lot of spawn, frogs ensure that at least some will grow into froglets."