Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - Yellow-bellied toads have a good chance of surviving, especially in the puddles of muddy driving grooves. A research project at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart has found that the usual measures to protect amphibians will not get you anywhere in the long term when it comes to endangered and strictly protected animals. The question was asked how spawning waters for the endangered species can be created, how toads can be protected and how the forest can still be managed.

According to the scientists, the yellow-bellied toad reproduces only in newly formed and short-lived, very small bodies of water, such as puddles. However, these are only free of predators such as dragonfly larvae immediately after they emerge. "Tracks left by forest machines on back roads create ideal spawning waters for the yellow-bellied toad," says Martin Dieterich, head of the research project for the sustainable protection of the yellow-bellied toad. In the first year, the little anuran relies on the grooves that keep forming over the course of the wood harvest. "The yellow-bellied toad reproduces particularly successfully in these new puddles," says Dieterich.

On the other hand, the yellow-bellied toad does not benefit in the long term from permanently created water bodies for the protection of amphibians. "In the first year of the study, the yellow-bellied toad reproduced particularly well in dredging ponds," says Felix Schrell, who coordinates the research project. However, predators of the yellow-bellied toad, which is one of the strictly protected species, settled in as early as the second year.