On Toad Patrol

Paul Hobson joins the wildlife champions of Monyash who help ensure the continuation of a local species

- Paul Hobson

Just over 350 million years ago much of South Derbyshire lay under a warm tropical sea.

Life flourished and for millions of years countless numbers of sea creatures lived and died, their dead bodies accumulating on the shallow sea bed. As time progressed this layer of sediment, calcium-rich from shells and coral, accumulated into thick layers. As the layers grew, this squeezed and changed the sediment until it eventually became limestone. Over the following millennia this limestone bed rose above the level of the sea and became the fabulous limestone dales of the Peak District that we love so much today.

Limestone is a fascinating rock that is quite soluble, and because rain is slightly acidic – this was before we created the scourge of acid rain – it ate into the rock and formed numerous underground features such as Poole’s Cavern in Buxton.

From a natural history point of view each rock type underlying the soils all over Britain has a major influence on the animals and plants that live there. In many ways the Peak demonstrates this brilliantly when we compare the sombre heather moors of the northern Dark Peak’s gritstone with the limestone dales of the White Peak.

Limestone has many features that help determine which wild creatures and plants can live on its thin alkaline soils. One of its most important features is that it drains incredibly well. This means that ponds, lakes and boggy ground are in short supply, so animals like frogs and toads might find everything they need for a productive life, apart from the very thing they need to breed in – ponds!