People in County Galway are being asked to record sightings of the Common Frog.
The County Council's Biodiversity Office is looking to create a dataset to help understand the environment and support better decision-making for nature and biodiversity.
The Common Frog is legally protected under the EU Habitats Directive and the Irish Wildlife Act, and is considered a biological indicator of environmental health.
The 'Hop To It' Frog survey asks members of the public to record and submit observations online at ipcc.ie.
Rosina Joyce, Biodiversity Officer with Galway County Council, recalls that growing up in Galway City she didn’t encounter many frogs.
It was only when visiting cousins in the countryside each spring that frogs became part of her world — from collecting frogspawn to watching tadpoles in ponds, and being utterly convinced that their transformation into frogs later in the year had to be magic.
While such encounters are often exciting, educational and formative in developing a connection with the natural world, they may seem incidental.
However, we now know that individual observations can contribute to something much bigger.
