2019 - Blog

 

 

A disease that wipes out frogs is spreading across the UK, conservationists have warned.

Climate change is increasing the reach of the devastating ranavirus from southern England to the rest of the UK.

In areas where it is established, it has killed up to 80 per cent of the frog population over the past decade.

 

 

 

Research led by the Zoological Society of London reports that the expected increase in temperatures over the next 50 years means the virus will spread to virtually all of the UK.  

Until now, outbreaks tend to occur from May to October and are confined to southern England, the Midlands, the North-west and South Yorkshire. There are also pockets of the disease around the southern Welsh coast and Devon.

It can be tricky to identify and the most obvious sign of its presence is finding a large number of dead frogs in a short space of time.
 

 

They are often thin and lethargic before death and develop skin ulcers, sores and bleeding.

Lead author of the study published in the journal Global Change Biology, Dr Stephen Price, from ZSL’s Institute of Zoology and UCL said: ‘Climate change isn’t something that’s just happening in faraway places – it’s already had hard-to-predict impacts on wildlife in our own back gardens.

‘This is one of the first studies that provides strong evidence of the impact of climate change on wildlife disease.’ ZSL scientists suggested frogs may be better able to cope with infection if they have areas in which they can cool down.

 

Gardeners can help by having log piles, vegetation or shady patches as well as keeping ponds deep.

Concern about climate change has hit new highs, a Government survey suggests.

Polling for the Business and Energy Department found four-fifths of Britons are now fairly or very concerned about the issue, the highest level since the regular survey began in 2012.
 

By Colin Fernandez for the Daily Mail

Published: 06:01, 10 May 2019

'ABE'

Email From Karen at Turgwe Hippo Trust 6th May 2019
 

Dear Jeanette

How are you and how is life over there in the UK?
 Here I am about to feed the hippos once more as we have a localized drought.  It is not as bad as in 2016 but they still need help so I will start again around mid June to late June.  In the meantime your adoption is over but I think that our darling Abe is no longer with us.  We have not found any carcass but in all of this bush it is possible that predators would have taken her and we will  never find anything.  We use a pendulum to see if an animal is alive or dead when they go missing and in her case it appears she has left us. It would be very possible, for as you know she was a very elderly lady and her time has come.  Her grandson who was living with her has also left that area so I think he was with her to the end and then has moved on.

I am so sorry to tell you this but as you know she had an exceptionally good life with us for the last 29 years  and I am sure she is playing in hippo heaven.

If you do want to support another hippo either choose on my web site or maybe you would like to support one of her daughters there are: Odile, and Tsakus where Abe used to live and Tacha down near our home Hippo Haven. 

Love to you Karen and the hippos xx

Email reply to Karen 29th May 2019
 

Dear Karen

Thanks for your email of 060519 in which you let me know about Abe’s death.  I have thought long and hard and have decided not to adopt another Hippo at Turgwe Hippo Trust.  However, I do assure you that I will keep in touch via your website with the goings-on at the Trust.

I am well – commensurate with being somewhat breathless and less mobile since I developed Atrial Fibrillation after my attack of cellulitis in my left leg in 2016.  Throughout 2018 I was ill:- In January I had shingles again having had it the first time in 1998 when it affected the left side of my face; in 2018 it affected the right side of my face.  I felt really ill and – although I had the appropriate antiviral treatment from my Doctor – I really got quite exhausted in the heatwave we had in the UK last July/August.  Subsequently, I developed cellulitis in my left leg again and so had the appropriate antibiotics over several weeks.  I realised – as did my Doctor and observant friends – that I had a legacy of chronic athlete’s foot (which predisposes towards the development of cellulitis) so I did finally give up going swimming at the local indoor pool: it had become a great effort!  Although I am better than I was, I will always have the legacy of getting older (don’t we all) and my mobility is diminished by my breathlessness.  I do of course take all the appropriate medication.

As I have said – pleased be assured that I will keep myself up-to-date with the Happenings at Turgwe Hippo Haven!  I hope you and Jean-Roger are well, and I send all my Best Wishes for the future of Turgwe Hippo Trust.

Yours sincerely

Jeanette

 

 

 

St Lukes Hospice Charity Auction October 2019
 

 

 

Happy Hippie Heffalump has now been put out to pasture in the gardens of St Luke's Turnchapel Plymstock