British Toad Patrols Hustle To Rescue Mating Migrants

CHARLTON KINGS, England When night descends in a spring mist,Sandra and Tony Jeans sense love and danger in the air. They marchwith buckets and flashlights to the busy A40 highway. Their mission:Rescue toads from the perils of desire.

Each spring, the Jeanses and hundreds of other volunteer toadpatrollers across Britain carry amorous toads that are in thebesotted throes of an annual mating migration across dangerous roads,so the toads are not flattened.

For growing numbers of British wildlife enthusiasts, this isserious and increasingly futile work.

"OK, it's not the prettiest of things, and it's always been castin the bad role in the fairy stories . . . …