Common Toad Migration — Lüneburg Heath

Each late February and March, hundreds of thousands of common toads emerge from their winter hibernation sites across the Lüneburg Heath and migrate overland to their ancestral breeding ponds in one of Germany's most remarkable and under-appreciated wildlife events — with toad-crossing stations staffed by volunteers moving animals in buckets across roads where migration routes intersect highways, creating one of Europe's most endearing conservation spectacles. On warm wet nights in late February, the first toads appear on forest tracks and road surfaces, males riding piggyback on females in their thousands in a migration so dense that certain road sections are temporarily closed. The Lüneburg Heath's network of ancient heath ponds and lowland beech forests creates a particularly rich toad migration landscape, and roadside ponds that attract large congregations can host a thousand amplexus pairs simultaneously, the water covered in a writhing mass of toads and the surrounding area filled with the quiet purring calls of the males. Children participating in the bucket brigades at toad-crossing stations — recording counts, moving animals, and learning hands-on conservation biology — create one of Germany's most accessible and participatory wildlife experiences. The Heide landscape in earliest spring, with the toads moving through frost-hardened heather under pale morning light, has a primordial atmosphere unlike any other German season.