On a damp night, frogs were driving me hopping mad
DRIVING across Dartmoor at night can be hazardous, given all the ponies and sheep which make a habit of hanging around on or beside the road.
On a recent evening – after an excellent meal at the Cott Inn in Dartington – I was driving back over the moor with my wife to our house on the western side and constantly slowed down and swerved left and right to avoid myriad potential collisions.
To any police traffic officer who just so happened to be stationed on the moor, my constant veering would have looked every bit the erratic antics of a drunk driver.
But it was neither alcohol, nor livestock which had the car slaloming along the lanes – but frogs and toads.
In the damp, there were loads of them about – and once I noticed one, illuminated in the headlights, it was impossible to ignore them. Some were stationary mid-road, frozen in the bright beams. Others were making slow progress across the tarmac.
I’m guessing the majority were toads, given that they were walking rather than hopping, as is the style with these shorter-legged amphibians. But either way, it made for quite a challenge trying to cross the moor without flattening any.
And it made me realise just how many frogs and toads live on the rain-sodden uplands here, which provides the ideal damp habitat.
In mild weather at this time of year, night time is the best time to spot them, as they keep a much lower profile during the day, heading to ponds and waterlogged ditches to breed after dark.
So Dartmoor drivers beware – it is not just sheep and ponies, or even hedgehogs, that one needs to watch out for at night. Amphibians abound. I haven’t seen any toad crossing signs on the moor, but there is still a simple message to heed – go slow to prevent toads and frogs from croaking it.