Helps toads cross the roads! - 26/01/12

Submitted by lucy on Thu, 2012-01-26 12:18

Volunteers are being sought to help save hundreds of toads and other amphibians from being killed as they make their perilous annual breeding migration.

Every year toads, frogs and newts migrate from their winter resting sites to ponds and streams to breed. Toads in particular are very fussy about A native toad where they breed and like to return to their ancestral ponds; this often means crossing busy roads. 

Some roads have been closed for the breeding season, allowing the animals to cross safely, but many roads still remain open and busy. Now toad patrols have been set up at some of the busiest crossing points - in Fishponds and Pill, Bristol; and Edington village, near Westbury in Wiltshire.

Bristol Zoo’s sister organisation, the Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation (BCSF), is now calling on people to help them collect migrating toads and move them to safe breeding sites.

Jen Nightingale, the UK Conservation Manager for the Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation, said: “Volunteers will be needed over the coming weeks as toads will start to migrate when the weather reaches over five degrees. As we’ve experienced quite a mild winter, the toads might start moving very soon, and the migration period can last up to four weeks.”

She added: “Toads and other amphibians set out on their journeys after dusk, preferring dark, wet and warm conditions, so we need volunteers between 6pm-10pm to help collect up hundreds of toads, frogs and newts and save them from being run over.”

“Even if you can only spare one evening, it will help save amphibian lives. All you need is a bucket, a torch and a high visibility jacket.”

Toads can often travel more than 1km during their migration back to their spawning ground. Rather than using rough hedgerow or grassy land, toads will often choose the easier bare ground to travel along, making roads the obvious easy travel route.

To find out more about volunteering for toad patrols, contact Bristol Zoo’s conservation office on 0117 974 7382 or email mrees@bristolzoo.org.uk.

Alternatively contact the Avon Reptile and Amphibian Group (ARAG ) which coordinates the toad patrols in Fishponds and Bath http://groups.arguk.org/arag or email A_R_A_G@yahoo.co.uk

To find details of other toad patrols in the south west, visit the Froglife website at www.froglife.org. Froglife is a national wildlife charity committed to the conservation of amphibians and reptiles -and saving the habitats they depend on.

Bristol Zoo Gardens is a conservation and education charity and relies on the generous support of the public not only to fund its important work in the zoo, but also its vital conservation and research projects spanning five continents.

For more information about Bristol Zoo Gardens visit the website at www.bristolzoo.org.uk or phone 0117 974 7300.

 

ENDS

 For more information please contact Bristol Zoo’s press office:

Lucy King, T: 0117 974 7306, or email: lking@bristolzoo.org.uk
Vanessa Hollier, T: 0117 974 7309, email: vhollier@bristolzoo.org.uk

 

Notes to the Editor:

Bristol Zoo Gardens

  • Bristol Zoo is open from 9am every day except Christmas Day. 
  • Bristol Zoo Gardens is a conservation and education charity and relies on income from visitors and supporters to continue its important work. 
  • Bristol Zoo is involved with more than 100 co-ordinated breeding programmes for threatened wildlife species. 
  • Itemploys over 150 full and part-time staff to care for the animals and run a successful visitor attraction to support its conservation and education work. 
  • Bristol Zoo supports – through finance and skill sharing - 15 projects in the UK and abroad that conserveand protectsome of the world’s most endangered species.
  • In 2011 Bristol Zoo celebrated its 175th birthday. Over that past 175 years, the Zoo has brought six generations of Bristolians closer to wildlife, helped save over 175 species from extinction, established over 30 field conservation and research programmes all over the world, showed 40 millionschool-aged children the wonder of nature and given more than 90 million visitors a wonderful day out.
  • In 2010 Bristol Zoo Gardens set up a Conservation Fund to raise vital funds to help care for threatened animals and plants – both in the Zoo and through the conservation work we do in the UK and around the world.
  • Bristol Zoo Gardens is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums. BIAZA represents more than 90 member collections and promotes the values of good zoos and aquariums.

The Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation

  • Bristol Zoo’s work in the field is carried out through the Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation (BCSF), which is based at Bristol Zoo Gardens.
  • BCSF carries out conservation and research programmes to support wildlife conservation – both in the UK and across the world - as well as research projects at Bristol Zoo Gardens.
  • Itaims to focus on the underlying causes of threats to species and ecosystems, rather than the symptoms.
  • It also aims to empower other people, often those in disadvantaged communities, to identify and mitigate the environmental issues that threaten species, their habitats and sustainable development.
  • BCSF’s public presence in Bristol Zoo Gardens enables it to engage actively with the public, to share knowledge, elicit support and drive change in conservation behaviour.
  • Field conservation projects run by BCSF include Père David deer in China; Livingstone’s fruit bats in the Union of the Comoros; primates of Colombia; partula snails of French Polynesia; South African penguins; lemurs of Madagascar; primates of Cameroon; tortoises and terrapins of Vietnam; the Avon Gorge & Downs Wildlife Project; native invertebrates and rare plant reintroductions in Somerset and white-clawed crayfish in south west England.