Just found this classic episode from the TV series based on Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows in which Toad and Badger are set adrift in Toad’s hot air balloon whilst Mole is forced to come to the rescue by motorcar down below!
Created using old-fashioned stop-motion animation…such a shame that the predominance of CGI effects today have forced the virtual demise of this technique. Toad is voiced by David Jason of Only Fools and Horses and A Touch of Frost fame.
According to a report in InTheNews.co.uk today ten of the most threatened amphibian species are to be given extra help from the Edge conservation programme run by The Zoological Society of London (ZSL)
They describe these creatures as some of the world’s most extraordinary amphibians:
This 34 pence British postage stamp featuring a Natterjack Toad was issued by the Post Office on 20 May, 1986 as part of a Nature Conservation set entitled Species at Risk. It was also issued as the annual European set of stamps and bears the CEPT logo. The stamp was designed by Kenneth Lilly.
The natural habitat of the Natterjack Toad is that of the sandy dunes along coastal areas of the north-west of England and East Anglia. “Toad crossing” road signs are often used in areas inhabited by these toads!
Did you know that throughout 2008 AArk (The Association of Zoos and Aquariums) will lead zoos, botanical gardens and aquariums in a globally coordinated public awareness campaign The Year of the Frog? It is designed to generate public awareness and understanding of the amphibian extinction crisis currently threatening frogs, toads, newts and salamanders - the World Conservation Union (IUCN) estimates that at least one-third of known amphibian species are presently threatened with extinction.
Sign up and become a friend of the frogs today!
This endangered frog species - Lithobates vibicarius - was thought extinct until recently rediscovered in The Children’s Eternal Rainforest, located in Monteverde, Costa Rica.
Swedish school children started a worldwide effort in 1987 by sending money to Monteverde, Costa Rica to purchase rain forest and protect its priceless natural treasures forever. Today children from 44 nations have helped The Children’s Eternal Rainforest become the largest private reserve in Central America, 54,000 acres. Online social networking site Facebook.com is presently hosting a contest in partnership with The Case Foundation — The Causes Giving Challenge — that will award $50,000 to the non-profit organization that attracts the most individual donors over a 50-day period ending February 1, 2008. Only days after joining the contest, The Children’s Eternal Rainforest group has rapidly risen to become the only environmental organization represented in the top 50 contest leaders.
Check out their Facebook page here: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_cause/53587
Death of a Naturalist by Irish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney is the title poem from his first major collection published in 1966 and one of the finest frog poems ever written!
Meet La Raganella or Hyla Arborea… better known as the Italian tree frog!
I came home one evening to my little house in Le Marche, Italy, to find this Italian tree frog on my front door handle.
