Natterjack Toad
Epidalea calamita
Natterjack Toad is a beautiful greenish-spotted amphibian, with a typical light stripe along its spine (that is the unequivocal sign to distinguish it from otherwise quite similar-looking but much more abundant Green Toad).
It is our rarest frog that has disappeared in the last decades from many localities and now lives only in several isolated populations in the west, north and south of Bohemia. It prefers pioneer biotopes with bare vegetation or only slightly overgrown soil. Therefore the most suitable habitats for this species are fields with vegetables or some other crops, or different mining grounds – for example for brown coal or sandpits, but also dump sites or military areas. Technical recultivations of such places or the absence of military activities are for the Natterjack Toad, on the contrary, a big problem and are the cause of its disappearance from many localities.
The Action Plan under preparation assumes detailed monitoring of historical localities, so that it is clear where Natterjack Toad populations still occur and how numerous and vital they are. Regarding management, it is necessary to protect selected parts of mining grounds from recultivations, or else eliminate unsuitable recultivation planting and to correct other undesirable intervensions in the mining grounds territories.
In abandoned military areas it is important to support alternative activities (motocross, etc.) that will allow the long-term existence of the Natterjack Toad.