{"id":448328,"date":"2026-02-27T10:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/448328\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T10:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:27:08","slug":"beltons-toad-patrol-helps-amorous-amphibians-cross-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/448328\/","title":{"rendered":"Belton&#8217;s toad patrol helps amorous amphibians cross the road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">At the centre of the action is Martin Thompson, 71, who has a nickname affectionately used on patrol nights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;They call me papa toad,&#8221; he laughs, almost on cue producing a frog\u2011shaped hat from his pocket and settling it on his head.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Most nights from February through to March, Martin and fellow volunteers fan out along the lane, scanning verges and the glistening road surface for movement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">When they find a toad, it is lifted gently to a bucket and carried to the safer, grassy side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Martin cradles a large female, her mottled back catching the torchlight. &#8220;She&#8217;s got thousands of eggs inside of her,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A smaller male clings to her shoulders in amplexus \u2014 the mating embrace toads and other amphibians adopt. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That&#8217;s what we do, that&#8217;s why we&#8217;re here,&#8221; he says, placing them down beyond the danger of passing wheels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the centre of the action is Martin Thompson, 71, who has a nickname affectionately used on patrol&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-448328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}