Green Flag

Call to make roads 'toad-friendly'

12 March 2010

A green charity is urging authorities to make roads more "amphibian-friendly", as more than 40,000 toads begin their annual spring migration.

Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (Arc) has suggested improvements to roads, including "toad tunnels", wildlife bridges and lowered kerbs that the amphibians can climb, as measures to save common toads from becoming road kill.

Volunteers are beginning their annual campaign to help migrating common toads, which are declining in parts of the UK, as they head to breeding ponds across the country.

Each year, members of the species come out of hibernation and return to the same ponds to breed on a journey taking them across roads at the risk of being killed by traffic.

Patrollers in the Toads on Roads scheme, armed with torches and buckets, will help toads cross busy roads at designated crossings on spring evenings.

Lucy Benyon, Arc's Toads on Roads co-ordinator, said: "This spring, we're keen to break the 40,000 toad-mark, partly as a symbolic gesture to show planners and highways authorities that this is a serious issue for wildlife conservation, and that this issue isn't going away without their taking notice."

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