Cristatus in Spawn

[Lee31]

Well, its that time again and my rear garden wildlife pond has 7 cristatus already, 3 fully crested males and 4 heavily egged females, we had 35+ adults at end of last summer, lets see, but we only had ice 3 days ago, also my front garden wildlife pond has 5 frogs, 3 toads, plus ive seen 2 GCN's, 2 Alpines, 1 palmate, 2 smooths plus the 1st of 4 marbleds that have escaped and returned to the pond for last 2 years

Lee

 

[stavroske]

Well, its that time again and my rear garden wildlife pond has 7 cristatus already, 3 fully crested males and 4 heavily egged females, we had 35+ adults at end of last summer, lets see, but we only had ice 3 days ago, also my front garden wildlife pond has 5 frogs, 3 toads, plus ive seen 2 GCN's, 2 Alpines, 1 palmate, 2 smooths plus the 1st of 4 marbleds that have escaped and returned to the pond for last 2 years

Lee

Ow ****... Escaped marbleds surviving in a cristatus habitat... Hope they all come back to your pond without spreading around their genes.

 

[Kaysie]

Genetically, they're all capable of interbreeding.

But does anyone know how often that occurs in the wild? Would a GCN court an alpine if female GCN are available? Would a female be receptive to his chemical/visual cues?