Saturday, April 24, 2004
From ADZPCTKO
4/23/04
What can you learn from looking at the tadpole of an endangered toad?
Today I got dropped off at Civett Flats Campground and hiked back the 11 miles to Lake Morena. Toward the end, at Boulder Oaks Campground, I saw a sign announcing that the campground was closed during the Southwestern Arroyo Toad's breeding season.
Just past the campground was, I think, "the" stream that held the tadpoles. I stopped to pull some trash out of the stream and noticed the darting of small fish, which I quickly identified as tadpoles.
I looked at them.
They were just tadpoles wiggling around trying to be in the warm shallow water without being dinner. They didn't know they were threatened. I thought about watching the sea otters growing up. In Monterey Bay, Pacific Grove, they were abundant. I always saw the amazing little guys in the mostly big surf.
What did I learn? That these creatures live life and man intrudes by hunting or habitat distruction. Either they make it or they don't.
