Wed, 8 February 2012
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In the second annual international toad song contest Sunday, tuneful amphibians from Germany, Denmark, Latvia and Sweden will croak it out for “love.”It’s a tough life being a toad. Rarely do kids want them as pets. They’ve been falsely accused of passing on warts to humans. And while a famous green Muppet has enshrined their counterparts in popular culture, toads have been left on the sidelines, still waiting for a loveable mascot of their own.
“If God had wanted us to be concerned for the plight of the toads, he would have made them cute and furry,” American humourist Dave Barry once wrote.
But for Britta Küper, assistant project manager of the LIFE-Bombina project, whose job is to preserve Europe’s endangered fire-bellied toads, recognising the importance of the amphibian is only a matter of time – and a little persistence.
“Before I started working at the project, I wouldn't have even have thought about touching toads,” she admitted. “But now I'm getting used to it.”
Suffering
The fire-bellied toad, named for its distinctive red-orange belly, is a particularly significant animal in the field of nature conservation because of what it represents, says Küper, who is stationed in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, where most of Germany’s toad population is found.
they are perhaps best known for something a little less conventional: their annual European Bombina song contest. 
“We don’t have contracts with them,” joked Küper. “The males are very sensitive about when they are in the mood for sex. It must not be too sunny or windy and the temperature must be cool but not too cool. It is absolutely risky.”
Head photo credit: Lida Rose
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