IT is an incredible journey for survival played out against the beauty of Holyrood Park, with thousands of amphibians battling against the odds to make it to safety.
The annual migration of frogs and toads from Dunsapie Loch to the safety of the nearby hills involves a journey of just a few metres.
But when you are only a few millimetres in size and facing man-made obstacles as well as joggers and cars, the tr
ip becomes something of an epic voyage.
The life and death drama unfolds every year in Holyrood Park. The most dangerous obstacle is the busy road that winds past the loch.
This year staff at the park ranger service of Historic Scotland were able to close the road off. Rangers also spent the day ferrying boxes and jars of little frogs from the loch to the hillside above it, to try to give the native species as big a chance as possible of survival.
Head ranger Martin Gray said: "These little creatures are very important to the park because they will feed on insects and worms – they are a gardener's best friend, and without them the delicate balance is affected.
"Sadly their numbers are declining. It probably doesn't look like that now, but the effects of pollution and climate change are affecting frogs and toads all over the world.
"So we try to do our best to help as many of them as we can get over the road to safety.
"It is difficult, as this has obviously been the route they have taken for decades, but now there are some pretty hazardous problems which they never had to face before. Closing the road off to traffic is a little extra help, and we try to keep them from falling into the drains as well."
The annual event attracts plenty of interested watchers and visitors, with families often seeing it as an ideal way to help their children learn about nature.
The amphibians are born at around the same time in June every year, and when the weather is just right they will change from tadpoles to frogs and toads.
In doing so they lose their ability to breathe under water, forcing them to move to a new home.
In most cases they follow the path their parents took to the loch to spawn, although what is an easy downhill hop for an adult frog is unfortunately a Herculean uphill struggle for a tiny baby.
To have got to this stage has already been something of a lottery for these creatures.
Those that make it out of the lake are only around ten per cent of the spawn – and only a fraction of those will make it to the safety of the grass.
As well as dealing with all their natural predators, they also face being stepped on and have to clamber up a kerb. If they are unlucky enough to wander into the car park, they face the added danger of several drains.
Park ranger Rosie Wylie said: "The biggest problem is that they are too small to actually make it up over the concrete kerb, so unless there is a pile of grass or leaves they become stuck."
The full article contains 539 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
