A hollow (空洞) halfway up a tree might seem like a strange place to look for a water-loving animal, but the results of a new survey have showed that common toads (蟾蜍) in the U. K. are skillful tree climbers. The surprising discovery was made by researchers from the University of Cambridge, working with Froglife, a charity devoted to amphibians(animals such as frogs and toads that divide their time between being on land and in water).
The team looked at reports from volunteers who were studying special nest boxes as part of the National Dormouse (睡鼠) Monitoring Program and the Bat Tree habitat Key project. “We couldn’t believe what we found,” said Nida Alfulaij, a scientist who supported the work. “We’re used to discovering woodland birds and other small mammals in nest boxes, but we hadn’t considered finding amphibians in them.” More than 50 common toads were found in very unexpected places: in parts of trees that are usually used by bats, in nest boxes designed for dormice, and even in old birds’ nests. That’s such a surprisingly high number that the researchers think tree-climbing must be a common toad habit—it’s just never been noticed before.
The researchers say this shows how sharing data between surveys with different aims can lead to new discoveries—even about species that experts believe they know well. Through the discoveries the researchers also have a clear understanding of how important tree hollows, cracks and holes are to all sorts of animals. It’s still unclear how easy the toads find it to climb—they were spotted up to 3 meters high in trees but this was as far up as the volunteers were looking, so they could be going even higher.
Why do the kind of toads climb the trees? The researchers have some guesses, such as looking for food, hiding from hunters or avoiding pests such as the toad fly. It is still a puzzle.
【小题1】What do we know about the new study?| A．It relied on the early studies of the team. |
| B．It came as no surprise to the researchers. |
| C．It resulted from the data of other surveys. |
| D．It proves what experts have known before. |
| A．Trees are believed to be toads’ best place to live in. |
| B．They climb trees to keep bats and dormice company. |
| C．The proper number of toads living together is 50 or so. |
| D．The toads may have formed the habit of climbing before. |
| A．Other living habits. |
| B．The reasons for climbing. |
| C．The ways to avoid pests. |
| D．More examples of the finding. |
| A．A science journal about biology. |
| B．A paper about the habitats of birds. |
| C．A fiction about amphibians animals. |
| D．A course about the significance of trees. |
