Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Frogs and Toads in the window well

I was astounded how much the board members knew about fish hearing; let's see how much you know about toad traction.

My new house has one window well. I check it every day for wildlife and usually find a few frogs or toads (toads, I think, there isn't much water around here) trapped in the well. As long as I get them out quickly they seem to be OK, but sometimes I'm not around for a couple of days and then I don't get them out in time.

It's usually pretty big ones, so I assume they are jumping in while trying to get somewhere important, although today I rescued one who couldn't have been more than 3/4 of an inch long. No idea how he got there, unless one of them laid eggs in the window track.

I either need to cover the window (as I type I'm visualizing a sheet of clear plexiglass) or find a way to let them climb out on their own. The well isn't all that big so any diagonal log/plank/pipe would have to be fairly steep.

Any idea how steep a surface a frog or toad can hop up, and whether they are sufficiently intelligent to figure out that "up = safety" ?

Fortunately my dogs just like to follow them around, not bark like fools or grab them and shake.