Annual toad migration in The Hague

Sometime in February or March, depending upon the temperature, the toads will awaken from hibernation. Every year the Haagse Dierenbescherming (The Hague Animal Protection Agency) is in need of volunteers to help these amphibians cross the city's streets so that they can safely reach the water to breed.

The group facilitating the annual paddentrek (toad migration) is looking for volunteers during a six-week period who can commit themselves to one evening in the week from sundown until about 23.00 hrs. to physically pick up the toads and set them down on the other side of the road.

Volunteers will be positioned at one of the seven toad migration locations: Laan van Poot, Machiel Vrijenhoeklaan, Dotterbloemlaan, Kwekerijweg, Kasteelvijver/Buurtweg (Wassenaar), Appelgaarde/Kastelenring (Leidschendam-Voorburg).

You can register via the website of the Haagse Dierenbescherming or by phoning tel: 070 – 392 42 89.

More about toad migration

Each Spring, around the end of February, the paddentrek (toad migration) takes place in and around The Hague (and of course anywhere else where toads live). After awakening from hibernation, the animals make their way to the water where they once lived as tadpoles (or polliwogs) years earlier. This water is the spot where they will mate and leave behind their string of eggs.

Once the temperatures start to warm the male toads first awaken and then the female toads. Given that the males are quite a bit smaller than the females, they warm up more quickly than the females. Although males usually wait for females at breeding sites, they will sometimes try to ambush them before they reach the water. Males clamber onto the backs of females and hold onto them tightly, the nuptial pads on their fingers providing extra grip.

Common toads spawn amongst waterweed. The female releases long strings of triple-stranded eggs, which the male on her back fertilises with sperm. About 600-4,000 eggs are lain. These strings become twisted and stretched around waterweed and vegetation so that the eggs settle into two strands. A few days later the adults leave the water. The tadpoles hatch within ten days and, despite being distasteful to most predators, the majority will not reach adulthood.

Environmental habitat

Did you know that a multitude of animals make their home in The Hague? Read more about the natural habitats for animals, flora and fauna in the city's rivers, forests and dunes under The Haagse Beek.