Why is building toad tunnels necessary?

The La Capelle pond and puddles site in a recorded breeding site for many species of amphibians (common parsley frog, spiny toad, fire salamander, green frog, palmate newt…), some being of community importance, such as the natterjack toad or the western spadefoot toad.

These amphibians make their prenuptial and postnuptial migrations between the pond and puddle network, respectively located in the east and west of the site, and the surrounding terrestrial environments.

The roads rimming this site are not only involved in the habitats’ fragmentation, they are also the cause of fatal traffic collisions. This mortality by collision became a fact since the 2000’s, and might be even more important in some segments of roads RD982 and RD279.

Building toad tunnels, underground wildlife passages, is therefore necessary in order to protect the migrating amphibians and ensure the site’s ecological continuum for amphibians as well as other land and semi-aquatic species.

What does building toad tunnels imply?

  • A study, based on a standardised protocol, shall be carried out in order to keep track of the number of traffic collision casualties and of the individuals crossing the roads in order to define the migration corridors.
  • Based on these results, along with the help of the Departmental Road Service, the intervention sectors, dimensions and piece of work’s characteristics shall be determined.
  • The projects for the creation of underground wildlife passage or “toad tunnels” shall therefore be launched. More specifically, it should involve nozzles with collector or cornice systems meant to direct the amphibians. Furthermore, information panels shall be put up in the meantime.

The project throughout time

  1. Step 01 - Spring 2022

    Monitoring the prenuptial migrations

  2. Step 02 - Fall 2022

    Monitoring the postnuptial migrations

  3. Step 03 - Winter 2022

    Drafting the specifications

  4. Step 04 - 2023

    Projects