Bath toad patrol group helps 50,000 to breeding grounds
The group has been closing the road in agreement with Bath and North East Somerset Council for more than 20 years. It is one of only four closures of its kind in the country. Chris Melbourne, who manages the collection of data for the Charlcombe Toad Rescue said it had been a "game changer" for the local amphibian population. He said reaching the milestone of helping 50,000 amphibians could not have been done without the support of nearby residents. Before the closure of Charlcombe Lane, the casualty amphibian casualty rate during mating season was 62%. In 2025, it was 3%.
There was an exciting first for the rescuers in 2025, with a Great Crested Newt spotted for the first time the group's history. The volunteers take every precaution to escort the migration, using latex-free, powder-free gloves so as to avoid any chemicals from their hands harming the amphibians.The group says changes in the climate make it harder for the group to keep of the toads.Mr Melbourne said it was becoming "increasingly difficult" to predict the peak times for amphibian movements."Closing the road for six weeks makes such a difference," he added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Homes shake in major city as fireball races across the Australian sky
Victorians were given a spectacular light show on Sunday night as a blazing meteor lit up the night before crashing down to earth with a huge bang which rattled homes. Residents from Bendigo to Ballarat and Melbourne 's outer west flooded social media with eyewitness accounts after a large fireball was spotted in the sky on Sunday just before 8pm. A Melbourne resident, who was at the intersection of Buckley Street and Milleara Road in East Keilor, 13km from the CBD, mistook the meteor for fireworks. 'It was so big and bright - magic!' they wrote on Reddit. Another shared footage of the extraordinary moment, writing: 'Seen from around Taylors Lake heading up on the Calder! Thought it was a firework at first.' 'Saw it out of our window in that exact area. Thought it was a firework,' a resident echoed. Other Victorians claimed they felt the impact of the meteor. Bendigo and Ballarat reported feeling a 'sonic boom' that 'shook the whole house', on community Facebook pages.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
Australian city considers adopting aboriginal calendar
The Lord Mayor of one of Australia's biggest cities wants to switch to a six-season Indigenous calendar, claiming it is more accurate than the four-season version. Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece said adding two extra seasons would be more representative of the city's weather than the current Northern Hemisphere model. 'In the Wurundjeri calendar, there were six seasons in the year. It was a wet summer and a dry summer,' Mr Reece (pictured) told 3AW. 'A wet winter and a dry winter. And when you think about it, it makes sense. But we have gone and superimposed the four seasons essentially from Northern Europe here in Melbourne. They don't really match up with the weather patterns that we experience over the 12 months.' The idea was brought up at the Melbourne 2050 Summit, hosted in May, where around 1,000 people discussed the city's future. Mr Reece, who was only elected Lord Mayor in 2024, said it was logical to have a system created by Indigenous people. 'This is one of those things where a bit of First Nations knowledge appears to make a bit more sense,' he said. 'Literally, wattle season starts and that week you look around Melbourne and all of the wattle trees have turned fluorescent yellow, and it's beautiful. Aboriginal people who lived here for tens of thousands of years, in their calendar, had six seasons here in Melbourne and when you actually look at the calendar and the seasons you actually realise hey that actually does line up.' Many poked fun at the Lord Mayor's proposal. 'We should all be able to adopt and identify with as many seasons, months of the year and days of the week as we feel like. Just like our pronouns,' one wrote online. 'Melbourne has really lost the plot. This is complete nonsense,' another said. The idea of changing the number of seasons in Australia isn't new. In 2013, Dr Tim Entwisle, at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, told National Geographic Magazine that 'four seasons just don't make sense'. 'When Europeans arrived in Australia, they brought a lot of cultural baggage, including a seasonal system from the temperate Northern Hemisphere,' he said. He said spring should begin a month early when native plants flower and last just two months instead of the usual three. It would then be followed by two-month-long 'sprummer', a four-month-long summer starting in December, before autumn sets in.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
Bizarre plan to make Aussie city switch to the Aboriginal calendar and have SIX seasons: 'It makes sense'
The Lord Mayor of one of Australia's biggest cities wants to switch to a six-season Indigenous calendar, claiming it is more accurate than the four-season version. Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece said adding two extra seasons would be more representative of the city's weather than the current Northern European model. 'In the Wurundjeri calendar, there were six seasons in the year. It was a wet summer and a dry summer,' Mr Reece told 3AW. 'A wet winter and a dry winter. And when you think about it, it makes sense. 'But we have gone and superimposed the four seasons essentially from Northern Europe here in Melbourne. 'They don't really match up with the weather patterns that we experience over the 12 months.' The idea was brought up at the Melbourne 2050 Summit, hosted in May, where around 1,000 people discussed the city's future. Mr Reece, who was only elected Lord Mayor in 2024, said it was logical to have a system created by Indigenous people. 'This is one of those things where a bit of First Nations knowledge appears to make a bit more sense,' he said. 'Literally, wattle season starts and that week you look around Melbourne and all of the wattle trees have turned fluorescent yellow, and it's beautiful. 'Aboriginal people who lived here for tens of thousands of years, in their calendar, had six seasons here in Melbourne and when you actually look at the calendar and the seasons you actually realise hey that actually does line up.' Many Aussies poked fun at the Lord Mayor's proposal. 'We should all be able to adopt and identify with as many seasons, months of the year and days of the week as we feel like. Just like our pronouns,' one wrote online. 'Melbourne has really lost the plot. This is complete nonsense,' another said. The idea of changing the number of seasons in Australia isn't new. In 2013, Dr Tim Entwisle, at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, told National Geographic Magazine that 'four seasons just don't make sense'. 'When Europeans arrived in Australia, they brought a lot of cultural baggage, including a seasonal system from the temperate Northern Hemisphere,' he said. Australia's weather is very different to Northern Europe's, with some regions experiencing high rainfall for several months of the year, followed by long, dry periods. Dr Entwisle developed his own five-season model for Australia's central east. He said spring should begin a month early when native plants flower and last just two months instead of the usual three. It would then be followed by two-month-long 'sprummer', a four-month-long summer starting in December, before autumn sets in. He also agreed that indigenous calendars did a much better job at reflecting Australia's climate than the inherited European model.
