...or the inconvenience of motorists?
A road will be closed for the next six weeks to allow toads, frogs and newts to cross to their breeding grounds.
Charlcombe Lane in Bath will be shut until 25 March. The Charlcombe Toad Rescue Group is hoping to help an estimated 2,500 amphibians reach their ancestral breeding lake in the valley below.
Toad helper Helen Hobbs said volunteers would be patrolling the road to keep the crossing creatures safe. She explained amphibians "typically migrate after dusk during February and March".
So...why not just close the road then, and keep it open during daylisght?
"In Charlcombe they often become trapped by high stone walls, so volunteers patrol each evening to move the amphibians to a safe release site to allow them to continue their journey.
"It's estimated that 20 tonnes of toads are killed on roads each year so our group is dedicated to doing everything we can to ensure the toad, frog and newt populations at Charlcombe survive."
Or they could just collect them and move them without closing the road at all!
H/T: Ian J via email
Twenty tons of toads killed on the roads every year? How many toads to a ton? It seems to me that the toad population is quite stable and doing very nicely thank you.
ReplyDeleteA plague of toads and newts soon to be visited upon the town of Bath.
And that's just the council.
DeleteTut, tut. Julia, you have been 'thinking outside the box' again.
ReplyDeleteHow much do toads pay in Road Tax? So sod 'em, it's not their tarmac. Bit like cyclists. . . .
ReplyDeleteThey dug a tunnel under a road for them near me.
ReplyDelete"How many toads to a ton? It seems to me that the toad population is quite stable and doing very nicely thank you."
ReplyDeleteIt's why they lay so many eggs, because few survive!
"Tut, tut. Julia, you have been 'thinking outside the box' again."
I really must stop doing that...
"How much do toads pay in Road Tax? So sod 'em, it's not their tarmac. Bit like cyclists. "
Not really, toads are cuter 😂
"They dug a tunnel under a road for them near me. "
I always wonder how they tell the toads that?