Tadpole Hunter

London 2023, kt., 305 Seiten, 106 Farbfotos, mehrere Graphiken. This book describes the history of amphibian conservation and research in Britain. It is packed with unique insights from the author who, in the late 1960s, was Britain’s first professional amphibian conservationist. At that time, the situation for amphibians was extremely serious after three decades of population de-cline. Up to the 1990s, Cooke was directly involved in understanding and trying to remedy the situation via research, legislation and active conservation. He initiated long-term monitoring, surveillance and studies that have continued well into this century. This research developed and utilised simple monitoring techniques, such as counting breeding newts at night or toads dead on roads. The resulting datasets also proved of value in determining whether breeding behaviour was affected by climate change.