Deepest frog in England!

[mikem]

They do spend the majority of their adult lives underground & just need open water in the breeding season.

 

[AR]

I recall finding a newt at the bottom of an 80m mineshaft, there were also significant numbers of beetles and the newt seemed to be making a good living for itself off these.

 

[mrodoc]

I think the frog would have come in with the stream and gradually moved down the cave.  There used to an assemblage of frogs periodically down at Stal Pitch in St. Cuthberts and that is a fairly convoluted route with vertical sections.  It probably came in in flood conditions. I like the story of the terrapin found in a Moroccan cave that had managed to descend an 18 metre pitch unharmed. - almost certainly a flood event. Frogs are tough but the one I saw swimming in the sea at Hope's Nose was not going to last long i suspected - that must have come down a sewage outfall nearby.

 

[A_Northerner]

Pretty sure frogs are small enough to survive terminal velocity, so regardless of the size of the drops involved they'd be fine. They've made quite the home at the bottom of Eldon Hole. I've also found them in both upstream and downstream sumps of P8.

The most significant one by far is Benfool's, as Main Rising is an upstream sump over 70m deep underwater, and apparently blocked by silt - so how the hell did a frog manage to get in there? I remember him surfacing from the dive talking about it, thinking he must be narced like mad!

 

[Flotsam]

When was the last French expedition to England?

 

[wellyjen]

When was the last French expedition to England?

1895 by ?douard-Alfred Martel? First descent of GG.
Could the more constant year round temperature and high humidity be an advantage for frogs of the amphibious sort? Enough to make up for the relative lack of food perhaps?

 

[Ed]

When was the last French expedition to England?

22?24 February 1797 - The Battle of Fishguard when La L?gion noire  lead by William Tate (Irish American) landed on Welsh soil

 

[thehungrytroglobite]

respect the cave frogs

 

[tony from suffolk]

I remember a trip in St Cotherstone and we saved 8 ir so frogs. I remember seeing one at sump 1 in Swildons once, but I reckon that your frog Pete is a pretty good contender for deepest frog

I've found a couple of frogs and a toad at Swildon's sump one. I've always taken them out, which I can only assume they were grateful for. None of them thanked me though.

 

[Fulk]

We once did the Igue De Viazac in the Lot of France. At the foot of the second pitch we saw a family of toads ? a big greenish one (mummy toad?) and three smaller, reddish ones (her babies?). Anyway, to get there we figured that they must have fallen down the first two pitches, of ~30 m and ~35 m, but they appeared to be none the worse for having done so. (On our way out they had disappeared, so we couldn?t rescue them.)

 

[mikem]

Male toads are noticeably smaller than females.

 

[Fulk]

So maybe they were her 'harem'.

 

[tony from suffolk]

I remember a trip in St Cotherstone and we saved 8 ir so frogs. I remember seeing one at sump 1 in Swildons once, but I reckon that your frog Pete is a pretty good contender for deepest frog

I've found a couple of frogs and a toad at Swildon's sump one. I've always taken them out, which I can only assume they were grateful for. None of them thanked me though.

Forgot to add - we spotted one of the frogs behind a rock, but as we were on the way in we had to leave it there. Back again a couple of months later, and the frog was in exactly the same position but much skinnier. Rescued that time!

 

[Mr Mike]

Longcleugh Shaft (nicknamed Frog Shaft) in the Nent Valley, 30m deep from the surface to dogleg, when 1st explored had lots of frogs at the bottom, likewise when we explored it years later we found one at the bottom.