Horny toads (amplexus)

These days, there’s a lovemaking frenzy going on in and around the ponds of the old Belmontas mill, East of Vilnius. The first hint of the amorous riot, is on the road leading to the parking spot – littered with casualties, damp patches that once were in the shape of toads. Sometimes, they are left drying on the asphalt squashed into a two-dimensional embrace, where a lovemaking pair of toads have fallen victim to the cruel rubber of a tyre. This automotive massacre of horny amphibians happened despite the managers of the site lining the road with a half-metre high mesh, dug into the ground, with sunk plastic buckets every ten metres to collect toads trying to force the barrier between their woodland home and their spawning grounds in the old mill ponds. For those that haven’t been squashed on the right side of the temporary barrier, a spectacle unfolds as the smaller males cling on for dear life to the larger toadesses (apparently, the technical term for this tantric behaviour is called amplexus), and use their mighty legs to see off the advances of rivals. Occassionally, a second male manages to overcome the defences of their adversary, making a tower three toads tall that inevitably collapses into a heap of writhing legs, arms and squawking, gaping mouths. We’ll have to see in a few weeks whether the toads’ shenanigans have paid off, and whether we can expect to see mini-toads hopping around the Belmontas woodlands in the early summer.