West Cumbria Rivers Trust is urging drivers to slow down for the next few weeks as the annual frog, toad and newt migration gets underway.
Every year, amphibians move from winter hibernation spots to their breeding ponds and lakes and some have to cross roads to do so.
They only move when the weather is just right, waiting for nights with mild and wet conditions.
When that happens, they move en masse, and hundreds can die each night.
Trust staff are doing ‘toad patrols’ on wet evenings when the animals are most likely to move, carrying frogs and toads in buckets from dangerous roads to the ponds they are heading for.
In just two nights on March 9 and 10, the team rescued almost 80 animals at a popular crossing point on the A591 just south of Keswick, near Low Nest Farm.
Jodie Mills, West Cumbria Rivers Trust director, said: “Although there’s much less traffic due to lockdown please slow down if it is a wet night as many more animals have yet to migrate.
“Over the next few weeks you may see our socially distanced staff out after dark with high-viz jackets and torches, so please do take care.”
Species helped in the trust’s rescues include common toad, common frog, smooth newt and palmate newt.
