h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Toad on the Town - A87790657
Author: Willem - U168712

Entry: A87790657 Toad on the Town

Author: Willem U168712

This entry is a reworking of my article in the Post which you can see here:

http://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/A87771702

I would like to use that picture to go with this entry as well.

What do you think?

What do I think

very nice entry in fact and very interesting

one tiny point it is a big slab of text the paragraphs help but could perhaps you could insert a few headers to make it easier to follow. It is also a nice glimpse into Cape Town and the surrounding area.

Well done

Excellent.

I agree with Bob about the headers. The material is fascinating - underscore that.

Hi Bob and Dmitri! Thanks for your input. I put in a few headers, how does it look now?

Excellent entry! We seem to lack entries about frogs and toads on h2g2; a search for 'Toad' came up with Mario and 'Frog' resulted in 'Rupert the Bear and the Frog Song' (First time I wrote that I accidentally wrote 'Frog Snog', which would be something different...)

Entries you might consider adding links to include:
A883 - South Africa
A337349 - Cape Town, South Africa

The Headers work well too.

<BB<

I liked the information and the people-toad interface. It would be a much better world if all citizens took part in saving their national animals. What a good use to put the usually misused sense of patriotism to. Maybe we would start treating each other better too.

Thoss Headers are perfect, Willem - especially the sex-change one. The eye sees - the mind is hooked.

This is an excellent article. It's good to write about toads, as I think some people regard them as ugly and poisonous, but you've made this urban toad interesting and attractive.

One question - does this toad hibernate? I think our UK ones do.

And one typo I think embryos should have a 'y'.

Well done

Hello everyone and thanks! I corrected 'embryos' and put in the two suggested links. Just ... do they work? They take me to the front page instead of the relevant articles ... but this has been so on this end for a while now, maybe it's just my setup.

Oh and I'll soon have a second picture to illustrate this, showing the volunteer road crossing guards and assistants.

Oh ... to answer your question Minorvogonpoet, as far as I know these toads don't hibernate. The winter in the western Cape is actually the season when the plants are growing and when there's much food available; the summer is dry and hot but the toads probably just hide in cool shady places at the hottest times and can still come out when its cooler to hunt.

If the entry numbers are OK fut an A in front of the numbers as below, this should do the trick


The Western Leopard Toad, Amietophrynus pardalis, is South Africa's largest toad species, and also one of the most strikingly patterned, with its panther-like spots and blotches. Also this toad is almost completely restricted to the environs of South Africa’s first and currently also one of its largest and most bustling cities, Cape Town.

Thanks Bob I did that and now it works!

Any more comments?

You are welcome

Thanks again! I have another illustration to go with the article, just before the last paragraph of the 'Town of Toad Hazards' section:

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/ToadEscort1b_zps0c75b303.jpg

Any further word on this?

looks good to me

1 last thing a link to A260849 Telling Frogs from Toads would be nice

Hi and thanks for the comment! Thing is, that entry works for America and Britain, but here in South Africa it totally breaks down. There simply is no way to distinguish frogs and toads aside from learning to distinguish the various species one could encounter here. Over here it is purely a matter of classification: toads are the members of the toad family and everything else is a frog even though many of those frogs look very much like toads and some toads do not have all the physical features typical for the family. In other countries they call things 'toads' which here we would call frogs.

I might put the link in together with a bit of explanation additional to what is already in the entry ...

Anything else, anyone?

I think this is finished Willem well done

Wonderful entry Willem!

<BB< how come you didn't find my Cane Toad entry A12945017 when you searched for "Toad"

GB