Yesterday, on Save the Frogs Day, I was lucky enough to attend a virtual screening of the short film The Toad Detour, hosted by Lisa Levinson of In Defense of Animals. This short film, released in 2012, highlights Lisa's discovery of this toad migration happening in Philadelphia and how she established a volunteer program to help save these toads from becoming road kill as they make their way across the street to water to mate.
Lisa shares the story of the moment she discovered the toads. One night, while driving down the road the toads cross to get from the trees to the water, she noticed a lot of what she thought were leaves in the middle of the road. Since it was spring, Lisa thought that was a bit odd so she got out to investigate. What she discovered was that the road was not covered in leaves, but in toads and frogs, mostly alive but some had fell victim to the cars which had passed by before Lisa did. My favorite part of this story was when Lisa said:
"Maybe we could do something about this"
...and then she did. Lisa worked with the local police to set up detours and with the press to ensure the locals knew what to expect. Volunteers joined and have helped Lisa save thousands of frogs and toads from being crushed by traffic.
What a simple, yet incredibly powerful statement. What if we each asked "what if we could do something about this" about any issue we find meaningful? What if we knew the answer was that we could?
Toad migrations happen all over the world, so if this interests you, I encourage you to fire up Google and find the Toad Detour nearest you. If you're in the Philly area, check out the Toad Detour at the Schuylkill Center on Facebook for more info on how to get involved.
Check out the screening of the Toad Detour film on Facebook here.
Tell me in the comments about a time when you thought "maybe I could do something about this" and then you did. What did you do? How did you feel?
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We have so many little toads and frogs, the little sticky green frogs hang all around our doors. They are so cute and I can't imagine them getting crushed! What a great idea for a frog detour to help save the frogs.
I never knew there was a Save the Frogs Day! Wow, Lisa was awesome, I will be checking out the film now, thank you for bringing this to my attention. It makes me think of catching frogs in the backyard and upstate NY when I was younger.Ah the good times, never hurting them and always letting them go- although the kid in me wanted to keep them all as pets but as they came from the wild it would be wrong!
Thank you for caring and taking action, Lisa! Around here, this is something common. We even have a street sign for toad season :-) It says "Amphibian migration: please drive slowly at dusk and at night"
Imagine how the world would be if everyone said this!