Photo: Getty; SWNS
A stretch of road in London has been closed to traffic for more than three weeks to allow toads to cross safely to ponds where they breed.
A 400-meter section of Church Road in Richmond, southwest of London, England, is blocked to motorists until the beginning of April, so local toads don’t get crushed during their annual mating migration.
“Toad patrol” volunteers man the road, which meanders through a leafy stretch of Richmond Park at night, but the road remains blocked off all day.
Charity Froglife, which is responsible for recruiting “toad patrol” volunteers, says the road is one of a handful of streets wholly closed to traffic during the toad migration.
The closure began on March 7 and will remain until April 1.
SWNS
Losing access to a road for close to a month due to hopping toads doesn’t bother the locals, especially since Church Road is a quiet street with only a few houses — and the diversion in place isn’t painfully long.
“I think it is fantastic,” retired IT manager Robert Brown, 67, who lives in Richmond, told SWNS. “To have that amount of consideration for toads, I think it is incredible.
‘‘I think it is very British. It is a very British thing to do,” he added.
‘‘It is cute. Only in England would you close a road for toads to cross," Chris Cann, 67, from Twickenham, shared, echoing Brown.
source: people.com
