Toad in the Road

This is from popular YouTube blogger softypapa, who makes some great videos about nature and other aspects of Japan. In this case he finds a large toad in some mountains near Tokyo. Reminded me that although this giant city seems very unfriendly to nature, there are spots that actually teem with life in all it's variety. In fact, I've seen animals, usually late at night, in this concrete jungle that I've never seen out in the country. I recall one evening on my way back from work I was walking up a hill in a very built up area of Yotsuya, central Tokyo, when in the opposite direction crawling very determinedly down the hill was a toad about the same size as the one in this video. I was too astonished to do anything except watch as it disappeared into a meter wide strip of bushes outside a giant apartment building. On other occasions I've seen racoon dogs, large snakes and kingfishers. I have no idea how they manage to survive, but they do!