Tuesday 17 May 2011

Toads talk Transport

Each spring I help organize the Toadwatch Patrols that this year saved over 15,000 Norfolk toads from being run over whilst on the way to their historic breeding ponds - we carry the toads across the roads in buckets. Toads often move on wet and windy nights so patrollers find themselves out on the roads with just a torch whilst everyone else is indoors watching the TV or driving around in their heated, air conditioned metal boxes. It is interesting how quickly being out in the dark with just toads to talk to makes you see the world through different eyes. The humans rushing past in their cars and hidden behind their curtains become an alien species whilst you identify with the toads, and the foxes and owls that are out hunting them.

One wet night in February I picked up a large, old female toad on her way to the pond and she asked me why there were so many more cars going through the village now, compared to twenty years ago when she was just a tadpole. I explained that the pub in the village offers cheap meals so many people drive here from miles away. The toad asked why the people didn’t use pubs near where they live – I replied that lots of pubs have shut because of lack of custom. The toad asked whether people in the village walked to their local pub. ‘No they mainly drive to pubs in other villages’ I said. ‘So they can squash other toads?’ - asked my friend. I didn’t like the way this conversation was heading and at this point I spotted two toads in the road and a vehicle approaching. I always wear a hi viz jacket and it is a 30mph limit (in theory) so I shone my torch on the toads and stepped out to rescue the toads – the car was still some distance away. I picked up one toad but the driver of the large 4wd drove on till there was an audible plop as his massive tyre stopped directly on the other toad. Our eyes met across the bonnet – clearly he was furious at having been made to stop but I could not tell if he had seen the Toad Crossing signs or had any idea of what I was doing in the road. I moved and he screeched off in a cloud of diesel smoke.

I took my bucket of toads to the pond and watched as they swam of to join in the mating frenzy that has occurred each spring for more than 300 million years- since amphibians were the first vertebrates to colonize the land.

Being out with the toads makes you realize just how pointless are a lot of the journeys on which we squander our precious oil. You see the same cars going back and forth. Parents spend hours transporting children miles to clubs in other parts of the county yet getting people to help with facilities in the village is difficult. People drive to supermarkets yet village shops and post offices are closing. The toads can’t tell us what we should be doing but they have seen off big footed dinosaurs and are confident they will still be here when the only oil fuelled cars are in museums.

Footnote - Toads secrete a poisonous protective substance called bufagin which is made up of a hallucinogen, bufotenine, and several glycosides similar to the heart stimulant digitalin from Foxgloves. Some people have been known to lick them to get high – NOT recommended but I do pick up a lot of toads and may have absorbed some bufagin! I should also point out that many drivers are considerate and once they are aware of the toads they do their best to avoid them.

5 comments:

  1. Lovely post, John. And moving. Toads are such magical beings, so imprinted in our collective imagination, you realise when you pay attention that the world would just not be the same place without them.

    I really know how it feels when you align yourself with the natural world (especially in the dark) and suddenly see how alienated we have become as a species . . . and how simple it can be to get back on track.

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  2. I make my husband stop for every toad, frog, newt on the road. On these damp evenings when they do their sitting in the middle of the road routine round here, hundreds get squashed. I rescue as many as I can, running in front or our large 4X4. It can take a long time to get home!! Not all people who drive these cars are bad, some need them to live in rural areas.

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  3. As I said in my footnote there are many considerate drivers and in fact there is a Land Rover driver who stops and collects toads on his passenger seat and then passes them through the window to the toad helpers. Both the considerate and the inconsiderate drive all sorts of vehicles.

    However, the incident did happen exactly as I described and the high driving position and long bonnet of some 4wd seem to make the driver more remote from what is happening around them - I don't feel that the driver of a small car could have glared up at me with quite such hostility as this person managed when looking down on me!

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  4. "I don't feel that the driver.. could have glared up at me with quite such hostility as this person". Try being a cyclist. I have been driven at, pushing me into a hedge. I call that attempted murder. Flourescent jacket or not, you are lucky to be alive!!!!
    Phil
    in Andover

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  5. I do most of my local journeys by bike and I've had a few close encounters with cars (of various shapes and sizes).
    http://transitionnorwich.blogspot.com/2011/02/battledress.html

    I'd say 50% of drivers are quite considerate to cyclists, about 48% don't seem to see cyclists (or don't know how wide their cars are) but only a very small number are actually hostile. I'm fortunate that I can normally avoid the busiest roads - though I do often have to cross the A47 dual carriageway! Of course as a cyclist you are very vulnerable and any accident is likely to be bad. Which is why I campaign for off road cycle paths.

    http://www.little-melton.org.uk/news/CyclePath.htm

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