This is a volunteer survey, targeting the nationally widespread amphibians – the great crested newt, smooth newt, palmate newt, common toad and common frog. The purpose of this survey is to provide robust assessments of their conservation status. To do this, we need to survey a representative sample of ponds across the UK in a systematic and repeatable way. By repeating the survey over time, we aim to monitor trends in the status of our widespread amphibians.

The survey visits will record each species, and gather information on habitat quality.  The number of ponds surveyed will need to be large enough to provide reliable conclusions and allow extrapolation for the whole country. We hope to survey 400 randomly selected ponds.

We will provide training and licensing as necessary, and allocate ponds for volunteers to survey. Results will be submitted online via the NARRS website.

We aim to provide free one-day training courses for surveyors in all parts of the UK during March and April, and no prior experience is necessary. All volunteers will be trained in amphibian identification, habitat assessment, survey methods and practicalities, to equip them with the knowledge and information they need to take part. We have a page listing the training courses to help you find one near you.

Each surveyor will be allocated a pond (or several ponds, if so desired).  Surveyors will arrange permission with the landowner to carry out the survey, but we will give you some simple pointers to make this easier.  The survey will require between one and three visits to the pond, during the day or evening, in appropriate weather conditions in the spring.  We will arrange any licensing that is required (subject to satisfactory completion of training). We will be cooperating closely with the relevant county Amphibian and Reptile Groups (ARGs) to maintain support and contact between surveyors, particularly those with little experience. Training courses will be held during the spring, and we hope to run them in all parts of the country.

Ponds will be randomly selected in each county, but we will attempt to allocate them to volunteers on the basis of proximity to their homes. Each pond will be surveyed according a fixed protocol (set of instructions) that will be posted here on the NARRS website shortly. Multiple techniques will be used: daytime visual searching, night-time torching, and daytime netting. Training, licensing, health and safety, and animal welfare will be of paramount importance, and we will do our utmost to provide you with the knowledge and advice you need. 

A survey pack (instructions, amphibian identification guide, survey form, landowner introduction letter) will be downloadable from this website soon, and an online recording form will be set up to enable electronic submission of results. Feedback will be provided online, and the data will be analysed in due course. Submission of hard copy forms will be acceptable too, but we will encourage online submission.

Your first task will be to familiarise yourself with a map of your 1 km square. Go to the Ordnance Survey’s Get-a-map site to see a map of your square. Once you have oriented yourself with an OS map, it may help to look at the aerial photography facilities provided by Multimap.com or Google Maps. Your survey pond may be shown on the OS map or aerial photograph, but you will still need to visit the site on foot to confirm this. To define what constitutes a pond, we are using the Pond Conservation definition of any waterbody between 1 square metre and 2 hectares in area, which holds water for at least four months of the year.

Up to three techniques will be used to survey the pond: visual search (including egg search), netting and torchlight survey (after dark).  Information about the pond, and the conditions under which the survey was made, will be recorded on a survey form provided.

We appreciate that some surveyors might not find any amphibians in their pond, and that this may be disheartening. To tackle this, surveyors will be able to take on additional randomly selected ponds if they wish. We will also have a parallel system of selecting ponds from nature reserves and other semi-natural habitats. These will only be allocated to volunteers who have already surveyed a pond with negative results.

The level of commitment is significant but we hope it is not too off-putting. You will need to spare a day or afternoon/evening for the training course (probably on a weekend), and probably a visit to the landowner.  The survey will then involve up to three visits (typically lasting an hour or two plus travel), during the day or late evening. If you are interested in taking part in this survey, please read on or register your interest here.