Thousands of toads stop traffic

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Thousands of baby frogs and toads are being cleared from a road through an Edinburgh park after they all emerged at once due to the warm weather.

Holyrood Park Rangers had to clear the huge number of amphibians, as a result of their fight to get back onto Arthur's Seat from St Margaret's Loch.

The froglets are said to be about the size of the top of a little finger.

Experts say the recent mild weather, with damp and rainy conditions, were ideal for the creatures to appear.

Lost tails

Martin Gray, Royal Parks visitor service manager, said: "This is usually the time of year that the toads migrate.

"They are what we call 'toadlets' in that they are at the stage where they are no longer tadpoles, have lost their tails and cannot breathe under water.

"They migrate from the pond to damp areas during this time of year.

"Late March to early April is when we get a large migration of adult toads from those damp areas back to the pond to lay eggs."

He added: "At that time we were dealing with the same situation of clearing out adult toads. There were about 400 to 450 at that time.

"This morning we picked up about 800 toadlets, and another good couple of thousand this afternoon and there is still more up there."

The road through the park was closed on Friday lunchtime and will remain closed throughout the weekend.