# General Topics > General Discussion & News > Press / News Items >  UK Press: Amphibians mate under a full Moon

## John Clare

BBC News, London, UK, 13th July 2009: _Amphibians mate under a full Moon_

"Amphibians around the world synchronise their mating activity by the full Moon, researchers have discovered.

This global phenomenon has never been noticed before, but frogs, toads and newts all like to mate by moonlight.

The animals use the lunar cycle to co-ordinate their gatherings, ensuring that enough males and females come together at the same time.

In doing so the creatures maximise their spawning success and reduce their odds of being eaten.

Details of the discovery are published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

Biologist Rachel Grant of the Open University was studying salamanders near a lake in central Italy for her PhD in 2005 when she noticed toads all over the road, under a full Moon.

"Although this might have been a coincidence, the following month I went along the same route every day at dusk and found that the numbers of toads on the road increased as the Moon waxed, to a peak at full Moon, and then declined again," she says."

Continued: BBC - Earth News - Amphibians mate under a full Moon

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## Kurt

Hmmm. I hadn't noticed this before, now I will have to look for it.

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