Helping hands needed with local toad patrol

Common toads, currently hibernating on moorland, near Osmotherley on the western edge of the North York Moors National Park, will soon begin to make their annual journey to nearby Cod Beck Reservoir to spawn. To get there, they must cross a road that runs alongside the reservoir and run the risk of being killed.

Unlike frogs, toads move by crawling which makes them particularly vulnerable to traffic. Sluggish from hibernation, the males will often sit in the road to look for a potential mate compounding the danger. It is estimated that 20 tons of toads are killed on the UK’s roads each year.

At Cod Beck Reservoir, on the edge of Scarthwood Moor, the patrol involves picking up toads from along a one and a half mile stretch of the road and carrying them to safety in a bucket. Patrols last from two to four weeks depending on the weather and typically start around dusk and continue until 10pm. Toad migration is very weather dependent but they tend to emerge on mild wet nights from February onwards.

Steve Rogers, who coordinates the toad patrol said: “On a busy night we can pick up hundreds of toads – 900 is the most we’ve ever collected in one go and in our best year we collected around 7,000 over the duration of the patrol.”

An information evening is being held at the Queen Catherine pub, Osmotherley, on February 18, 7.30pm.

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