Mating madness when the toads come home

Lightwood, Derbyshire The females act like magnets for all that testosterone. A toad ball could number about a dozen

Compare the old and new maps of this area north of Buxton and you'll notice how the valley's wedge-shaped bloc of blue has morphed into a line threaded through several blue specks. Those cartographic changes reflect a heart-warming story of how toads can alter whole landscapes.