Members of Merritt’s Nicola Naturalist Society hosted 14 local children participating in the Royal B.C. Museum’s (RBCM) traveling “Species at Risk” program on July 28.

The museum’s program, which is traveling through many B.C. towns this summer, is aimed at making children aware of the animal species in the province which have declining populations or are threatened by human activity.

In Merritt the museum’s program is sponsored by the City of Merritt Recreation Program.

In our area the Great Basin Spadefoot and the Western Toad are amphibians considered to be at risk.

Instead of talking about these animals in a classroom setting, the children were bussed to Kentucky-Alleyne Provincial Park to have a first-hand experience with Western Toads and to see the conservation program there, run by the Nicola Naturalist Society and BC Parks.

In past years many tiny toadlets, migrating to the forest from their hatching pond, were being run over by cars on the park’s busy campsite road.

To reduce the mortality rate, BC Parks installed a culvert and the Nicola Naturalist Society built a low wooden fence to guide the tiny toadlets safely to the culvert.

Many thousands of toadlets are now saved each summer.

At the park, the Nicola Naturalist’s amphibian program coordinator, Andrea Lawrence, explained the lives of Western Toads and introduced the kids to the tiny thumb-nail sized toadlets.

The kids got to see for themselves the toadlets moving along the guide-fence and passing safely under the road in the culvert.

Nicola Naturalist president Dr. Alan Burger also talked to the kids about the Great Basin Spadefoot and the unique habit that this small frog has of digging deep into sandy soils to avoid dry and cold periods in their grassland habitat.

The “Species at Risk” program continues this week, led by the RBCM’s outreach team Rachelle Linde and Jenny Arnold.

The RBCM’s exhibit was open to the public on Saturday, Aug. 1 from 1-3 p.m. at the Rotary Park.

 

Submitted by Nicola Naturalist Society president Dr. Alan Burger