6 days ago
Risky Routes Showcases the Perils of a Toad's Journey Home
It's a dark, wet night on the side of a road cutting through a Swiss forest. Cars rush past, their headlights lighting up a toad slowly creeping towards the edge of the sidewalk. The small amphibian steps its way off the curb and inches further into the road. Disaster seems inevitable, until a savior arrives — a child scoops the toad up and deposits it safely in the vegetation on the far side.
This is the pivotal scene in Risky Routes, a short documentary made by a Switzerland-based team of naturalists and filmmakers. It seeks to shed light on the perilous journeys made by migrating toads to their ancestral breeding grounds, as well as the work of volunteers to save them. The documentary won Bloomberg's Green Docs competition on Wednesday for films addressing the urgency of climate change, along with a $25,000 prize.
