CUMBRIA Wildlife Trust is celebrating a successful breeding season for the natterjack toad at its Eskmeals nature reserve this year.

It is the second year running that adult toads and their spawn have been spotted in the open dune habitat. Breeding records show that for four years previous to this, experts worried that the distinctive toad was extinct altogether in the area.

The toad, which is rare to the British Isles, can be distinguished by its yellow stripe, yellow iris and its inability to hop. Instead, it hunts for food by sprinting across open ground on its short back legs.

In the breeding season, on spring evenings, the male toads create a distinctive chorus. This song can be fairly loud hence its given name natterjack'.

This year's toadlets will not mature and breed for another three years and so ensuring their survival until this time is vital. Therefore the trust has to work hard to make sure the conditions are just right for natterjacks.

The natterjack toad lives and breeds in unstable environments. It tends to use temporary fresh water pools for breeding where competition with the common toad, and the threat from predators, are less likely. These ponds often dry out, killing the tadpoles, before they can change into toadlets and leave the pond.

Intervention by John Thomson, Eskmeals' warden, and Tony Warburton and David Woodhead, honorary managers, has significantly increased the chance of successful breeding.

Three to four hundred tadpoles were transferred from a temporary pond into a neighbouring lined pool where the water could be monitored and maintained throughout the summer months. Later in the summer, 13 toadlets were observed outside the pond showing that some of the tadpoles had survived the difficult conditions.

As well as maintaining water levels, John has also continued to graze sheep at Eskmeals, keeping the grass short, making it easier for the toads to hunt.

Despite Cumbria Wildlife Trust creating just the right conditions for natterjacks at Eskmeals, there are many animals happy to take the bite-sized toad for their dinner. Predators include hedgehogs, foxes, gulls, herons and badgers.

However, the survival of the natterjack toad is helped by laws to protect the species in Britain and a licence is required to handle or disturb them or their habitat.