FROGS in an area of Okehampton which normally flock to their breeding ground in Raneleigh Road appear to have hopped it this year!
It is a mystery why dozens of frogs who have been laying their spawn at Raneleigh pond for the past 20 years have not yet arrived.
'We had a few in late January but we have not had our normal visitation, which usually amounts to 150,' said official pondkeeper David Wright.
'We have no idea why the second batch have not arrived and would be interested to know if anyone else has experienced the same problem.'
The normal signs warning motorists that frogs are crossing the road have been erected by Mr Wright but they could be coming down soon if the little creatures fail to make an appearance.
'I have found no dead bodies on the road so it is not a case of them being run over,' he said.
'We have always had frogs here and then we started getting toads and suddenly four years ago the toads stopped coming.'
Devon Wildlife Trust said something may have happened where the frogs were hibernating throughout the winter.
'Flooding earlier in the year may have washed them away from wherever they were hibernating,' said biodiversity record centre assistant Eleanor Bremner. 'Or it could be that the cold spell of weather just recently has put them back a bit this year.'
The Devon Wildlife Trust is currently putting together a map of all the breeding grounds and large frog populations in the county so it can get a clearer picture of what is going on.
Miss Bremner is asking people to contact the hotline on 01392 279244 if they have frogspawn in their pond and say when it turned up.
'Many people complain that they have too much frogspawn but only about four in 1,000 eggs survive to adulthood so you can never have too much,' she said.
'We cannot definitely say why the frogs have not arrived in Okehampton this year but with better records in the future we may be able to tell why this sort of thing happens,' she said.