The Yorkshire ARG currently has around 50 formalised members - we are now gearing up to plan another years of activities, surveys and events in 2016.  We are a purely voluntary group of individuals so events or activities are entirely led by and organized by our members.  The group seeks to undertake and contribute to the national events and surveys being conducted by ARGUK, ARC and by other relevant organisations such as The Freshwater Habitats Trust.

Our group membership is geographical very wide ranging throughout Yorkshire with members scattered from Sheffield in the South up to Leeds, York and as far as Scarborough and Hull.  Therefore we seek to ‘hook up’ our members who may live locally to one another and could collaborate to form a more localised survey/event team.  Group members collectively have a wealth of herpetofauna expertise and survey experience; many work within private and public wildlife organizations, conservation agencies, are ecological consultants or are interested and enthusiastic herpetologists.

All events and surveys details are circulated to group members.  We already have a number of new survey opportunities and event in our draft events programme as well as plans to continue some of those undertaken in 2015…details to follow soon…!

Most surveys and events are undertaken within the main herpetofauna survey season from mid March to end September each year. 

So if you know of a great amphibian or reptile sites in Yorkshire, or ones which have potential to be great and would like to arrange a survey or an event at please do get in touch, we may be able to assist you! 

Amphibian chytridiomycosis, a disease caused by the virulent fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (or Bd for short), has been recognised as the primary cause of global amphibian population declines and extinctions since the late 1990s. The disease is known from many parts of the world, including Europe where it is decimating multi-species amphibian assemblages in Spain.  In the UK the presence of non-native species has been linked to the introduction and spread of Bd. 

In 2008 a project, Funded by Natural England and conducted by the Institute of Zoology (IoZ), aimed at assessing the extent of Bd across the UK was undertaken.  In order to determine the distribution of Bd in Great Britain, the project aimed to identify the Bd status of as many ponds as possible with as wide a geographical spread as possible to obtain meaningful results.

The project utilized the network of ARGs across the UK to train volunteers in the techniques for obtaining samples for analysis by IoZ and to raise awareness of the threat of Bd and the biosecurity measures that should be taken when visiting ponds or other waterbodies.

In Yorkshire five sites were sampled and two tested positive for Bd.  One of the sites (Sun Lane Nature Reserve near Otley) was sampled by NEW Yorks ARG and repeat surveys have been carried out since 2008 to confirm the initial positive results. A range of native amphibians occur at Sun Lane Nature reserve including; common toad, and great crested newt, however it is likely that Bd has been introduced to the site by an established population of non –native Alpine Newts (Triturus alpestris) present at the site.  Although Bd is has been identified at Sun Lane Nature Reserve there have been no recorded instances of unexplained mass amphibian “die offs”. Therefore the negative affects of Bd at the site remain unknown.  Further sampling of amphibians by New Yorks ARG at the Sun Lane Nature Reserve and Skipwith Common will occur during 2011. Keep an eye on Herptile Happenings for the date to be confirmed.  More importantly if you know of any sites in Yorkshire that you feel needs sampling for Bd please get in touch with NEW Yorks ARG for advice.

The National Amphibian and Reptile Recording Scheme (NARRS) widespread species surveys began in 2007 and continues to date.  In brief the aim of the project is to gather species counts and habitat suitability data for amphibians and reptiles in randomly allocated 1km grid squares across the UK.  Grid squares are allocated to volunteers registered with NARRS within 5km of their post code. 

The data gathered through the scheme can be used to long-term to provide information contributing to UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) and EU Article 17 status assessments, habitat condition assessments and other measures. Ultimately it should be possible to use the NARRS results to set conservation priorities and targets, and to contribute to local, regional and national Action plans, as well as to measure the progress of conservation action on the ground 

In Yorkshire and Humber a total of 19 grid squares (12 for amphibians and 7 for reptiles) were surveyed between 2007 and 2009.  A report detailing the results and the data analysis of these surveys can be downloaded from the ARC trust’s website (http://www.arc-trust.org/downloads/NARRS_Report_2007-2009.pdf).  In 2011 members of the New Yorks ARG will be running another free NARRS volunteer training course at Skipwith Common (see Herptile Happenings for details).  If you look at our picture gallery you can view a number of reptile pictures taken at Skipwith Common during the course in 2010, hopefully weather permitting we will have similar success in 2011.  In addition in 2010 New Yorks ARG members adopted a group square so if you don’t feel you can take something on by yourself keep an eye on Herptile Happenings and there maybe a group NARRS survey event you can get involved with.  

If you wish to register for NARRS or wish to know more about the scheme please visit the official NARRS website - http://www.narrs.org.uk/index.htm