Tunnel to save frog lives

WORK has been completed on a €65,000 tunnel project to save the lives of hundreds of frogs and toads in Brittany, who would otherwise end up flattened by vehicles.

The tunnels have been completed under the D86 at Vern-Sur-Seiche near Rennes where each January to March hundreds of frogs and toads are killed crossing the road to travel from woods to a nearby lake which is their breeding ground.

Five tunnels have been built, designed to allow the creatures to cross under the road “without even noticing it” said the head of green spaces for the Ile-et-Vilaine department Jean François Le Bas.

The tunnels threaten the work of one local group of volunteers, who, for the past eight years, have visited the woods to collect frogs and toads and carry them safely to the lake.

The group, la Parvole, estimates that 1,200 amphibians were killed on that stretch of road every year.

Photo:Flickr/Johan