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It was my first contact in this year with the wild amphibians. The first detected was a Great Crested Newt (Triturus cristatus) in a little puddle near to a field road.

It was a young female and showed the defense posture with the characteristic advertising signal: the yellow stripe on her tail.

Several Agile Frog (Rana dalmatina) were observed in some little ponds, they started the mating and their eggs could be found at this time already.

Later I found near to 50 carcass of Lake Frog (Pelophhylax ridibundus). The checked exemplars belonged to this species, but specimens of the hybrid P. kl. esculentus could be other victims. Probably the exemplars died in the small ponds captured in ice layers.

Some exemplars survived, but they were still mostly inactive.

Another emerged species was the Common Toad (Bufo bufo). One male was observed solo, and another were observed in amplex with an huge male Lake Frog exemplar, which was to chilled to escape from the strange lover.

  

OTHER TRIPS

This was another interesting herp trip. This location probably has more and more surprises for me. The first visited puddle was considered by several Agile Frog (Rana dalmatina) an ideal place for reproduction. Seeing the deep water I consider the same.

The holes were made probably after excavating of sand. The Agile Frogs and the Lake Frogs (Pelophylax ridibundus) are the first inhabitants of these puddles. Now is the perfect time to make some picture on the green frogs. They are mostly handleable.  

The Agile Frog eggs are easy to identify when they are fixed to different plants, logs or other materials. But just in that case.

The Common Frog (Rana temporaria) are present in few exemplars here. No reproductive activities were observed by me. The Common Toad (Bufo bufo) prefer the deeper ponds, but several exemplar could be found in smaller puddles too.

Interestingly, I found another Common Toad male squeezing a female from another species, belonging to the Common Frog. In this case the female was dead. The "assassin" is obviously not the male. On the body of female different wound could be observed. A bird? Although even the head of the female is abnormal. A parasite? The pair was far away from the bank, and when I tried to track them, the Common Toad lose its interest to the female and try to escape.

The abnormal shape of the head could be the effect of Amphibiocystidium ranae as supposed by a colleague from the HerpNet list. About this pathogen you can read here.

Just in few hours two sheep groups leaved the area. The pasture is more than overgrazed. The amphibians and the metamorphosed ones are cold turkeys.

Several Lake Frog were found with different wounds. What is the causes, I don't know. Disease? Hits caused wounds? 

This puddle was the favorite of the Agile Frogs. It was filled with many eggs.

A nearly dead (so still alive) Common Frog male was found in another pond. The cause of its poor condition is not the attached bloodsucker, you can see in the second picture. A bird again? NEW: I get new informations (articles) about leech's attacks on amphibians. So rectification: could be the leeches the cause of injuries? The species of the leech was identified as Haemopis sanguisuga.

Another wounded specimen. The skin of the Lake Frog from the second pictures was nearly bald. The specimen was found out of water and nearly immobile. The question is: why?

And why another weird pair? A male Common Toad squeezing a male Lake Frog. And where are the female Common Toads? A short videos about these two boys are uploaded here. Unfortunately the video has no sounds. The disturbed Common Toad male and the persecuted Lake Frog male vocalised continously, of course with different goals: "Leave my "baby", "she's" mine", "What I am doing here? Leave me alone! I am so sleepy".

An explanation of this interspecies pairs could be the biased male-female ratio in some amphibian species and/or the the different time periods when the sexes arrive to the breeding sites. And of course, the outstanding "blindness" of some very active males, which sometimes are attached even to logs, dead dogs, fishes or other materials.

Another victim of the "assassin": a female Common Frog. 

This female Common Frog was in way to its "favorite" breeding places. Probably the breeding season for this species here is starting later (?).

A female Great Crested Newt (Triturus cristatus) was a victim of... The predator now knows what is comestible and what is not. Probably this poor (dying) specimen rescued couple exemplars from its species. 

Here I posted some not well captured photos with the two newt species founded here. The Smooth Newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) is present with the L. v. ampelensis subspecies (or a transitional form?). The morph with little dotts is present also. 

That is the sanctuar of hundreds of Smooth Newts, couple Great Crested Newt and the breeding site of Agile Frogs.

Another breeding site for the Agile Frog. It is a ditch between fields.

These reeds covers a ditch and several puddles inhabited by Smooth Newts and which are used for breeding by Agile Frogs.

OTHER TRIPS

At the same location, with the same enthusiasm but with a new camera. Couple weeks before I lost my little Olympus camera with several important pictures made here with Common Spadefoot (Pelobates fuscus) in reproduction. In this moment just the tadpoles belonging to this species are the signs of this nocturnal creature. Although all the area is filled with water from the adjacent Olt River. 

The excavation of sand for construction is a fortunately habitat construction activity.

The tadpoles of brown Rana (R. dalmatina and R. temporaria) are in great number even in the biggest fishponds.

Today was finally the day, when I realized that the Red-bellied (although not so red) Toad (Bombina bombina), the Yellow-bellied Toad (B. variegata) and their hybrids inhabits these habitats. The presence of the B. bombina in Braşov county is first signaled after a long time, as the youngest data regarding to this is from the first part of 20's century. Enjoy the varieties and look the change of pattern due to the hybridization events.

A little pond with the two species and their hybrids.

Another inhabitant of the area is the Green Toad (Bufo viridis ssp.), the first specimen found here.

The European Tree Frog (Hyla arborea) continue its reproduction activities. In couple meters 6 males were found. The first exemplar has an inflammation (?) on its back: viruses ?

The green water frogs here appear with the Lake Frog (Pelophylax ridibundus - up) and the hybrid form, the Edible Frog (P. kl. esculentus - down).

The zone is disturbed by the romantic songs as their reproduction period started. The frogs as the other Rana species use several parts of the lakes or puddles. The battles are for territories and females.

The Sand Lizard (Lacerta agilis) prefer the south faced forest margins even near to the water. Here a subadult lizard.

The Grass Snake (Natrix natrix) is a common snake here as in less than half an hour 3 exemplars were observed. Of course: the defense position is always tried...

OTHER TRIPS