Ratownicy ropuchy szarej

Pictured: Andrew Cleave with toads on Cufaude Lane, Basingstoke, Hants. TOAD CROSSING. People don high-vis jackets and head out with torches and buckets as dusk falls on a country lane, so they can look to help toads cross a road. The Cufaude Lane toad patrol group, made up of over 20 volunteers, head out half a dozen at a time to save amphibians from being crushed by passing vehicles. Common Toads are very particular about where they breed and are looking to cross the road to migrate back to their ancestral breeding pond. They follow the same route, regardless of what gets in their way, including this road. Retired from running an environmental education centre, Andrew Cleave, 74, has been patrolling the road for over 12 years setting up the group a few years later. Whereas with other locations where migration can only last a few days, this area can see the toads crossing the mile-long stretch of road over a six week period. It is very much dependent on the weather as the amphibians prefer it to be warmer with high humidity and so cold snaps can set the season back. Patrols will continue here until the majority of toads have made their journey.   The national speed limit road is used as a shortcut between Bramley and Basingstoke, Hampshire. To date, this season alone, over 500 toads, 60 frogs and even 30 newts have all been saved by members of the group, but due to the winding lane, the volume of vehicles and the speed limit on the road, around 100 fatalities have also been recorded.  The group with an age range of 7 to 75, has even had Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin join them for an evening out on patrol. At the end of each night Andrew takes all the collected toads and releases them at the pond.   The patrol heads out at sunset as the migration begins, usually for a couple of hours each night during the worst of the traffic. Once the traffic greatly reduces the team departs, so the figures recorded are only a small proportion of the total population of a