- Feb 5, 2002
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Dispersed around the UK, hundreds of heroic volunteers soak themselves to the skin on early spring nights in order to save toads, frogs, and newts from being squished under the tires of passing cars.
This network of volunteer societies are literally transforming England by slowly walking across dark asphalt with a high beam flashlight and a high-visibility jacket, picking up amphibians and dropping them into a bucket for safe transport across the road.
They are reducing the toll of roadkill on local amphibian populations by enormous amounts, and ensuring they can keep up their valuable ecosystem services like keeping insect populations in check, and filling the spring air with their soft croaking songs.
If you don’t live in a wet or rain-prone area, and you’ve never been on the road during frog/toad mating season, you might think “how hard is it to just avoid running them over?” But it’s not that simple, for starters because they can gather in such numbers that swerving to avoid one puts your tires on another, and small frogs and news look just like leaves and twigs on the dark tarmac through a rain-splattered windshield.
Last year, England’s 203 amphibian rescue groups saved at least 115,000 animals from roads.
Continued below.
Village Saves 45,000 Toads From Roadway Deaths Cutting Casualties By 60%—All the Way Down to 3% Rate
This network of volunteer societies are literally transforming England by slowly walking across dark asphalt saving toads, frogs, and newts.
www.goodnewsnetwork.org
