A Russian bucket brigade helps toads and frogs cross the road to get to a spawning site
A NATURE RESERVE NEAR SESTRORETSK, Russia (AP) — It happens every spring along a section of road north of Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg: Volunteers, many in yellow vests, patrol near the Sestroretsk Bog nature reserve.
They serve as crossing guards for thousands of toads and frogs, who are trying to navigate toward their spawning sites.
There usually isn’t much traffic, but even the relatively low number of vehicles still would kill up to 1,000 toads each year, said Konstantin Milta, senior herpetology researcher with the St. Petersburg Zoological Institute.
“On large highways, the death rate is monstrous. Sometimes the surface of the road can be covered with a layer of dead animals,” Milta told The Associated Press.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-frogs-toads-volunteers-safe-crossing-f4c5257070f72ede4a72f3192608d1d6