Conservation tour company Perthshire Wildlife is doing its bit to stop toads and frogs needlessly drowning in drainage gully pots.
On Saturday, October 22 in Murthly and also on Sunday 23 in Blairgowrie, there will be sessions about the need to get ‘amphibian ladders’ put out around Perthshire to save thousands of small animal lives.
Perthshire Wildlife has a free workshop at Murthly Village Hall on October 22 from 10am-3pm which will see the public learn how to build simple escape routes for wildlife endangered by roadside deathtraps.
A second free workshop session is at Newhill Primary School, Blairgowrie Community Campus on Sunday 23 from 10am-3pm.
Tayside Amphibian and Reptile Group (TayARG) and Friends of Angus Herpetofauna (FAH) will demonstrate how to make amphibian ladders for gullypots in the morning.
Then participants will go with them to place the SOS ladders into local drain holes in the afternoon.
The research has been available for some time: wildlife of all kinds are getting trapped in roadside gullypots and drowning.
In 2015 the study results from local amphibian ladder trials undertaken by Friends of Angus Herpetofauna were published by the British Herpetological Society.
The important study, the first of its kind in the UK, had been trialling the use of amphibian ladders as a means for toads, frogs and newts to escape certain death from gullypot entrapment.
The results showed that more than 70 per cent of amphibians falling into gullypots used the woven nylon mesh ladders as a means to escape and provided photographic evidence of toads climbing the ladders and extricating themselves back through the grating to freedom.
Danielle Muir of Perthshire Wildlife said: “When I was a ranger I took part in the study and we found that 80 per cent of gully pots contained wildlife - not just frogs and toads but anything from young rabbits, voles, whole families of small mammals, even a squirrel.
“We are working with Perth and Kinross Council’s roads department to get escape ladders in place and we have them in Murthly, Lethendy, Stanley and Blairgowrie but we continue to survey to find more suitable sites.”
She suggested anyone coming along should b ring a packed lunch, plus warm clothes and waterproofs for the afternoon session. “We will provide refreshments.”
Book for Murthly at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/amphibian-ladder-workshop-tickets-428591327197
and for Blairgowrie at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/amphibian-ladder-workshop-blairgowrie-tickets-431248254137
