For the third consecutive year Latvian Nature Conservation Agency (DAP) will organise a special campaign “Mission – Toad. Save a prince!”. As part of this campaign, DAP urges volunteers to sign up to rescue toads and make sure roads are safe for them to cross during their migration period, as confirmed by DAP senior communications specialist Ilze Reinika.
The agency notes that every spring, when weather becomes warmer and rainier, toads slowly wake up and go on their way to the nearest body of water to reproduce. Unfortunately, crossing roads with intense traffic can take up to 15 minutes for toads. This is why thousands of toads are crushed on roads in Latvia and other countries of the world every spring.
“In order for volunteers to participate in the mission, it is necessary to fill in the application form “https://ej.uz/s9uv”. The task is mostly carried out during the dark hours of the day, so the DAP will provide first 200 volunteers with reflective vests with campaign elements. Regardless of the place of rescue, every volunteer needs to be motivated for the mission, as well as set aside a few evening hours off for one to two weeks. Volunteers should bring clean gloves and a bucket, a reflective vest and a flashlight with them,” the agency notes.
Toad migration times differ year to year. It’s not possible to name any specific date when the mission may commence. Still, toad migration is tied to the weather – once air temperature hits at least +5° C and rain comes, there is a high probability toads will wake up from their winter hibernation and will start migrating to nearby bodies of water.
DAP explains that one more sign of the start of the migration of amphibians are frogs. They usually wake up first. However, unlike toads, frogs hop. So they cross roads to get to bodies of water much quicker. But toads are slow crawler, the intended path can be one or even several kilometres long. They run about 600 meters per day, so it can take several days to migrate. In addition, the toad perceives the machine as a threat and mistakenly thinks that staying still will help avoid this threat.
The lifespan of a toad can reach up to 40 years, which is more than, for example, for a moose. Over a lifetime, toads take the same route to spawning grounds every year by spawning in the same body of water they hatched in.
The path to the spawning ground is genetically coded and remains unchanged for generations. Consequently, it is not the toads that cross the roads, but the roads that cross the historic toad migration routes. As a result, people around the world are approached to help amphibians during migration.
DAP stresses that saving toads is a simple, but responsible task.
By participating in a toad rescue mission, volunteers also take part in the public record keeping or monitoring of natural values. “A small amphibian record questionnaire must be filled in after every time volunteers participate in the rescue of amphibians. This information helps to more accurately determine the status of each species and the factors influencing it, thus identifying the nature conservation measures necessary to improve the status of the species,” DAP explains.
In the two previous missions there were more than 200 volunteers who participated in efforts throughout Latvia. Year after there there were different intensive points of migration. For example, last year volunteers near Saldus helped more than 200 toads cross the road in a single evening.
Toads are an important part of the food chain, as they mainly feed on various insects, snails and earthworms. But they themselves are prey for many predatory animals, including small eagles, wild owls, stoats, ferrets, badgers, and other animals. If toads were to disappear, the natural balance could end up disrupted, biodiversity in general may be reduced, and various species may disappear entirely, the agency says.
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