Cape Town - It’s August, it’s mating time for the western leopard toads and they are on the move.
From Glencairn to Grassy Park, from Scarborough to Strandfontein, the toads are heading from gardens and fynbos to vleis and rivers on the Cape Flats, the males calling for mates as they go.
Some say the mating call of the male leopard toad sounds like a fat chap snoring off a heavy night’s drinking. Others say in chorus they sound rather like a tractor.
While mating, of course, comes naturally to these creatures, they are at a loss to cope with the hazards of modern urban life along the way to the vleis. Their ancestors hopped unimpeded across the few kilometres that separated their stamping grounds from their breeding water bodies, but today toads have to cross roads and highways, and many are splattered to death by vehicles. As the Two Oceans Aquarium has said: in the fight between the toad and the car, the loser is always the toad.
Others are killed by pets, they drown in swimming pools, or they just cannot get through suburbia, over high walls and razor wire.
Those that do make it to the water have other threats to face. Some may be killed by alien fish like barbel, others are killed by pollutants in the water and some may find the vlei or river covered over by alien floating plants.
It is no surprise that with these odds, their numbers have declined, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified the western leopard toad as endangered.
But Capetonians can help reduce the risks, and many volunteers already are. One organisation has formed, called Toadnuts (Noordhooek Unpaid Toad Savers).
The Two Oceans Aquarium suggests that anyone who wants to help even the odds between the modern world and the ancient toad should volunteer their help – even if they do not live near a toad area – as volunteers are needed to help move the creatures out of danger during the mating march.
The other big help is for drivers to slow down when driving through toad areas this month, particularly when driving around one’s neighbourhood at night, and to keep one’s eyes skinned for the hoppers. They are large and easy to spot on the road.
If you see a toad, register your sighting online and, even better, upload a photograph with GPS details. Alert neighbours about the toad so they can keep a lookout.
For those living in a leopard toad area, there are simple ways of building a small “stepping stone” with a net on the edge of swimming pools so that toads that get in can get out and don’t drown.
To find out more, see www.leopardtoad.co.za and www.toadnuts.ning.com
Cape Times