Monday, June 8, 2020

Saving Tadpoles

So, amid all the distressing news of late, here's a little story that caught my attention.

An Irish girl noticed some tadpoles in a puddle. Fearing that they'd be in a bad way if the puddle dried up, she rescued them and carried them home and put them in a tub. A few days later she went by and saw more tadpoles in the same puddle, so she rescued those too and took them home as well and put them in another tub. Fast forward a few weeks and she has by her estimation 37000 tadpoles in a little wading pool with rocks and greenery. The ones that are starting to grow legs she's been taking and releasing in local ponds and creeks within a two mile radius of her home.

Having attempted the rescue of many a tadpole back in the day, my sympathies are entirely with this frog-rescuer, who I hope has started what may turn into a career of taking care of a lot of overlooked small animals among our midsts.

Here's a link:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/07/teenager-hannah-mcsorley-collection-tadpoles-tiktok-star-northern-ireland

--John R.
--current reading: ANCIENT ECHOES by Rbt Holdstock




1 comment:

OnTheTrail said...

What a lovely story John. I saw a young lady just last week, she was no more than 14 and was picking up a bee that had clearly gotten too fat and exhausted to fly with so much pollen so she gently picked it up from the path with a leaf and placed it where it could rest in a nearby bush. It was lovely to see a teenager take such care. I spend half my time while walking looking at the smaller wildlife so it is lovely to hear there are others out there.