To mark World Wetlands Day 2025, the Irish Peatland Conservation Council are launching this year’s Hop To It Frog Survey.
The Hop To It Frog Survey is a citizen science initiative that IPCC has been coordinating since 1997, where we ask members of the public to submit their sightings of the different stages of the frog life cycle.
World Wetlands Day is celebrated each year on February, 2nd.
It aims to raise awareness about wetlands and also marks the anniversary of the Convention on Wetlands (known as the Ramsar Convention) of which Ireland is a contracting party.
Wetlands include both freshwater and marine habitats such as lakes, rivers, peatlands, marshes, estuaries, tidal flats and mangroves.
They are vital ecosystems that contribute to biodiversity, climate mitigation, freshwater availability and more.
However, since the 1700s, nearly 90% of the world’s wetlands have been degraded.
This World Wetlands Day, IPCC encourage you to become a citizen scientist and join the Hop To It Frog Survey.
Ireland has one native frog species, the Common Frog (Rana temporaria), which like other amphibians requires freshwater habitat to complete its life cycle.
It is widespread in Ireland, found in habitats such as woodlands, bogs, fens and gardens, and has smooth, moist skin which it can make lighter or darker to match its surroundings.
You can submit your records of any stage of the frog life cycle on IPCC’s website (www.ipcc.ie).
Frogs have a fascinating life cycle and undergo dramatic changes in their transition from tadpole to adult frog (known as metamorphosis).
Adult frogs emerge from hibernation in early spring (sometimes even earlier) and travel to breeding sites.
Male frogs attach themselves to the back of a female in a position called amplexus before spawning occurs. Frog eggs are enclosed in an envelope of jelly known as frogspawn.
When the tadpole hatches, it will digest the spawn jelly.
Tadpoles breathe through gills and eat algae, and as they get older they will also eat plants and insects.
As they develop into a froglet they grow legs, their tail reduces and they breathe through their lungs.
Young frogs will usually double in size by the following autumn and they reach sexual maturity in their third year.
Adult frogs eat slugs, worms, flies and other insects. They hibernate during the winter in refuges such as tree stumps, leaf piles or rock piles.
The Common Frog is protected under the Irish Wildlife Act and as an Annex V species under the EU Habitats Directive.
Monitoring the population of Common Frogs can help us to better understand changes in our local environments as they are biological indicators to pollution.
This year watch for the Common Frog and the various stages of its lifecycle in your area.
To become a citizen scientist all you have to do is submit your record to the Hop To It Frog Survey on IPCC’s website.
