Photo: Christian Haerting

New life in the quarry

First resettlement of the yellow-bellied toad in the Lohoffscher Bruch (district of Goettingen)

Tettenborn Colony. It's time. After the extensive measure in February, the first young yellow-bellied toads were able to move to their new home in the Lohoffscher Bruch, a quarry south of Bad Sachsa on 10 July 2019, in perfect weather. A total of 21 guests attended the resettlement in the former gypsum quarry, including LIFE BOVAR project and cooperation partners, representatives of the responsible authorities and local nature conservation associations as well as interested citizens. “We would like to thank all those involved whose support has made it possible today to offer the endangered yellow-bellied toad a new home here", said Holger Buschmann, chairman of NABU Lower Saxony.

Making the Lohoffscher Bruch appropriate for the yellow-bellied toad' was not an easy thing. “When we began with the measure, we did not know whether water retention is possible at all in the gypsum karst", project employee Bruno Scheel of NABU Lower Saxony explains. “That's why it's all the more pleasing that we're standing here today and can literally breathe life back into the quarry," Scheel continues.

The toads which will be reintroduced into the Lohoffscher Bruch come from the nearest occurrence of the yellow-bellied toad in Thuringia. At the end of April, a breeding group was taken here and kept in the breeding station in the LIFE BOVAR project office in Rinteln, district of Schaumburg. Since then a lot has changed. “In total, we will be releasing around 600 young toads today. That is a fantastic number'', announces project member Kim Fasse of the NABU Lower Saxony. The development of the species here at Lohoff's Bruch will now of course be closely monitored," says Fasse.