Toad in the hole for Kerry farmers
Locals opt for profitable eco project in a bid to save the natterjack toad By Angela Sammon - 07/06/10
Kerry farmers have discovered an inventive way to make money! Canny locals in the Castlegregoy area have signed up for an ecological project, which should net them €5,000 in the coming years.
In a bid to save the natterjack toad, farmers are being offered cash sums for every pond they dig to allow them to breed.
So far, 46 farmers in the Castlegregory area have signed up for two ponds at €500 each, netting them €1,000 a head. They will also be paid a further €4,000 over the next four years to look after the toads.
Dr Ferdia Marnell, chief ecologist with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, is now encouraging more farmers to join the scheme and has said that the programme was so far a "resounding success".
The protected natterjack toad has been in serious decline in recent years. They live mainly in coastal areas around Castlemaine Harbour and along the coastal strip west of Castlegregory on the Dingle Peninsula.
Dr Marnell said that 90 ponds had been created so far, and more would be dug in the coming years.
He said they hoped to take on more toad farmers in the coming months with a view to having as many as 15,000 toads re-introduced in the region.
Natterjacks breed in warm, shallow ponds with little vegetation.
Ponds that dry up in hot summers are ideal, as they tend to support fewer predators, such as dragonflies.
Over the winter, natterjacks hibernate in burrows they dig in sandy soils or in piles of rocks or dry stone walls.
Dr Marnell said they died off over the past hundred years due to extensive drainage of marsh wetlands, their favourite habitat.
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