When you only mate once a year, let’s just assume that you are pretty singularly focused on getting to where you need to be to get that done.
So if you are a salamander that lives in Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park and you emerge from underground on one of the first warm and wet nights of spring and head to the vernal pools to do the deed and lay eggs, the last thing you want is to get hit by a car.
But the sad reality for any number of species of amphibians — including toads, frogs and salamanders — is that the long journeys often made en masse to get to breeding grounds is a dangerous one when they have to cross roads to get to the water.