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Port Royal Avenue Shut Down For Annual Toad Mating Season

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Every spring when the temperatures rise above 65, so does the libido of the toad.

"The song and dance," said Lisa Levinson, head of Toad Detour.

When it's mating time, thousands of toads cross over Port Royal Avenue in the evening to get to the Roxborough reservoir where they consummate their relationship.

"One car can kill hundreds of toads and so it's really important we set up a detour to prevent that from happening," Levinson explained.

So now people with Toad Detour shut down Port Royal Avenue every year around this time.

"I started doing this about two years ago when I saw a story about it in the local paper and I thought this will be interesting," Toad Detour volunteer Marianne Porter said.

Volunteers like eight-year-old Naomi Israeli make sure the hopping amphibians cross over the road "…and he might mate," Israeli said.

Levinson tells me not all drivers are thrilled with being detoured due to toads, but this is the third year it's been done and she has no intentions of stopping any time soon.

Reported by Todd Quinones, CBS 3

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