The frogs have a new place to hop — in the sack.
A Suffolk County town installed a “tunnel of love” under a busy roadway in an effort to preserve its local frog population — and it’s sure to offer protection for randy amphibians as warm weather and mating season arrives, officials said.
“We might have some amorous amphibians,” said Dan Losquadro, Brookhaven’s superintendent of highways who first built the $40,000 structure underneath East Bartlett Road — the first of its kind on Long Island.
The tunnel was first unveiled two years ago but keeps getting improved with innovations like a brand new protective aluminum fence keeping animals off the road — connecting two popular ponds that the frogs can now frequent without risk of croaking.
The eastern pond often dries up in summer and frogs have to hop their way into danger to get across, Brookhaven environmental analyst Luke Ormand said.
“Since we’ve done all this work, mortality has gone to pretty much zero,” Ormand said.
Turner explained that the unique idea of building a passageway about the dimensions of a small backpack came from a “sad situation” he had seen firsthand four years ago.
“I was driving by and started smelling the blood in the air — of just scores of crushed amphibians, frogs that were trying to cross the road.”
Since the grim discovery, Turner and his team outlined the crossing, which he likened to the pedestrian tunnels beneath Ocean Parkway that lead to Long Island’s beaches.
Now, species like the wood frogs, spring peepers, and grey tree frogs can thrive rather than survive, he said. Their mating calls now fill the airwaves day and night, the local officials said.
“We’re going to do this at least one other place up in Mount Sinai on the North Shore,” said Turner. “We want to protect turtles that cross the road there.”
Frog’s eye view
Ormand installed tiny cameras that capture frogs and other animals crossing by to ensure the tunnel’s success.
“We’ve had up to 15 other species we’ve caught on camera,” said Ormand of the snakes, salamanders, possums, raccoons, chipmunks, and birds that could have been potential roadkill.
He added that new equipment is coming to better spot cold-blooded animals, like frogs, that often slip past the video stream as they head to their own actual stream.
“You never know what the reaction is going to be with [things like] this,” Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico said.
“It’s been wildly popular. People from the tri-state area want to learn about it. They love it and they now want their municipalities to do things like this.”
Along with investing in the ecological infrastructure, the public servants have also been leaping into plenty of frog puns.
Panico, enthusiastic for “the summer of love,” said one frequent traveler has been dubbed “Sammy the bullfrog” — town officials said they pray he won’t flip. Losquadro’s team joined the fun with some ideas to name the tunnel.
“When we installed this, my [road] sign shop dubbed this the Hoppin’ Tunnel and the Frog’s Neck Bridge,” he said while proudly displaying the specially made miniature green and white signage.
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