2013 December 11

The information boards of the project can be found in the project areas:

Habitats of the European pond turtles and rare amphibians are being restored in the Southern Lithuania at full speed. These species are endangered because of the lack of suitable habitats – small, clean, predator free, sun heated water bodies with shallow slopes. Such water bodies became overgrown with shrubs or disappeared because of the succession. Therefore they are being restored by the project team. Near the water bodies sandy, sun heated slopes are being cleaned to make them more suitable for the egg laying of the pond turtles.  From roots, soil and wood amphibian hibernation places are created in the places where the water rising in spring would not flood. A video about restoration can be watched here.

For the last several years, trying to avoid mass killing of amphibians on a road, ecologist from Veisiejai Regional Park Irma Maciulevičienė used to carry amphibians during the spring migrations. A system of temporary fences and dug in land buckets was built along a busy regional road Veisiejai – Lazdijai which fragments amphibian habitat leaving Šlavantas lake on one side and swampy wetlands on the other. Thousands of amphibians were trapped in the buckets while trying to cross the road.  Some of them were still managing to climb the temporary fences and were squashed on the road. To prevent amphibian road kills, the first underpass devoted for this group of animals was built in Lithuania. The pictures of the underpass can be found here.