A closed road to facilitate the copulation of frogs

File Photo, AFP

AFP

Friday, January 12, 2018 13:26

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Friday, January 12, 2018 13:26

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Rennes, A road from Saint-Malo, western France, will be closed to automobile traffic for two months to promote the reproduction of toads, has announced that a town hall Friday in a press release.

The street of Small Ports, located near the tip of the Varde, a site protected and classified natural area sensitive, is closed to traffic from 15 January to 15 march by municipal ordinance.

Last year, a “high mortality of amphibians during migration”, due to traffic, had been observed in this port city on the north coast of Brittany.

The toads and newts webbed, which are part of the red list of world endangered species, have indeed taken the habit of reproducing in a pond located close to the road.

“In mid-February 2017, about a thousand of the amphibians have been recorded around this point of water”, stresses the mayor.

In 2017, a first driving ban for a month already had “helped to stem the mortality of the amphibians and the preservation of their breeding, many laying having been recorded” after the closure of the road, she says.