I discuss my ideas with Nicola. I should understand how things are. How much do the Triestines know about yellow-bellied toads, and which is their consideration of these animals? Agreed and united by the interest in the little toads that Slataper narrated, we decide to go to the practical activities to look for answers. We start by scanning social media, and we come across a large Facebook group with a catchy name that in English would sound like “Mysteries & Wonders of the Karst”. Born in 2014, it has over 30,000 subscribers and an average of about 40 posts published per day. They are mostly middle-aged people who enjoy sharing news, photos and stories about everything that part. So we decide to publish a position in which Nicola asks if there is anyone in the Trieste area who knows or owns pools, artificial pools or small pools of water that host the toads and is willing to meet and talk to us. 

A few days after the post’s publication, I got phone numbers associated with creative nicknames. I immediately got in touch with everyone, trying to figure out if and when I could go to see the tub and the toads in their garden. I write down every appointment: name, place and time. I don’t want to risk forgetting any of them or overlapping them. Thus begins a journey of exploration of another Trieste, the same observed by the heart-shaped pupils of the toads.

TUESDAY 8 JUNE 2021 

EMILIANO 

CESARE DELL’ACQUA STREET, 2 – AT 11:00 A.M.

A large straw hat protects Emiliano from the sun. Although June is quite intense for those who work as a farmer, Emiliano devotes some time to me. On the house’s veranda, we chat over a cup of chicory coffee. Before doing this, Emiliano was a partner in a computer consulting firm. Then, during the spring 2020 lockdown, he decided to sell his share and dedicate himself entirely to rearranging the land that was once his parents’. In that piece of land, located between the cemetery and the cycle path of  Rosandra Valley, Emiliano lived there as a child. «When I was little, my brother and our friends went to play near the Rio Corgnoleto, a small stream that passes right below – Emiliano tells, me pointing to a series of willows beyond the garden – there I saw for the first time the toads. There were so many of them, and we used them to play! When I came back to this house for farming, I was surprised to find them. They’re there in the pool that used to be a septic tank, but it hasn’t been used in years. With the rain, the tank fills up and, at least until August, there are constantly a couple of fingers of water». While soaking in the coffee of cookies, Emiliano tells me that since April now, every day he looks in the tub to check on the toads. «I look out and I see the toads sunbathing. Now and then, there is also some newt. They told me that they help control mosquitoes!» 

The old septic tank is located right at the beginning of the field; a few steps separate it from the backyard. It is a square-based tank dug into the ground. The interior cladding is in concrete, but the construction is very artisanal and seems to have stone outbuildings. It will be about 70 centimetres deep, but the water will reach no more than 5 centimetres. Finally, I sit on the edge and see them leaning towards the water. I begin to move my gaze as if to trace the entire perimeter of the water, and then I move towards the centre. The toads are clinging along the tub’s edges and to the wooden board resting on the bottom. They seem to sunbathe, as Emiliano told me. Zoologists have a term for this activity; they call it “basking”, from the English word meaning “basking in the sun”. I remember reading that yellow-bellied toads are often basking, especially in the morning and before hibernation. I start counting them: one… two… three… there will be at least ten. «Mine is a huge colony!» enthusiastically exclaims Emiliano. «When I phoned Doctor Bressi saying I surely had more than ten toads in the tank, he explained that the toads’ populations usually have few individuals. So, if there were more than ten in my tank, mine was one of the largest populations it was aware of».

The toads generally do not reach populations composed of many individuals because they lay a relatively low number of eggs. In addition, the mortality of eggs and tadpoles is deeply affected by the habitat chosen for spawning. I remember reading in a study that, on average less than 5% of the eggs laid by the yellow-bellied toads manage to become adults reaching sexual maturity (2-3 years). However, once adult, toads have few predators and are relatively long-lived. Many of those in Emiliano’s tank looks like young adults to me. They’ll be about two years old. The average life in nature is around ten years, but they can live twice as long in some cases.

Squatting there, I get lost watching them; I think I could do it for hours. Suddenly, I come back to the present. «Take, you will repay me by helping me in the field when you finish studying toads!» exclaims Emiliano, returning to the tub holding a bag with eggs, onions and lettuce. I try to retreat gently. The problem is, I’m afraid I’m late for another appointment. I put every without delay; I put everything in my backpack when Emiliano returned. 

TUESDAY 8 JUNE 2021

ENDRYU 

CAMPANELLE STREET (CORNER VENTURA ROAD) – AT 01:00 P.M.

Five minutes from Emiliano’s house, IarriI arrived point that Endryu had indicated to me as the place of our appointment. I didn’t realise the distance was so short. I recheck Endryu’s message to ensure I’m in the right place: I HAVE A SMALL POOL OF WATER IN MY GARDEN WHERE I SEE THOSE TOADS FROM NICOLA BRESSI’S POST SWIMMING. IF YOU WANT, YOU CAN COME ON TUESDAY AROUND 1 P.M. THE ADRESS IS CAMPANELLE STREET (CORNER VENTURA ROAD).

The way is correct, but I’m a bit early. I’m waiting a few minutes. I’m starting to go back and forth on the corner between the two roads of the message. At that point, I see a girl who is pushing a stroller. It is now a couple of meters from me, intercepting my gaze: «Novella? Hi, I’m Andrea… Endryu… I texted you for the toads. Come!» While I thank her, smiling, Andrea leads me along Ventura Road. The street ends blindly in the garden shared by two houses. There are no gates. Andrea pulls the stroller under the tree at the entrance and lifts a little boy. «Come too», she repeats to me with a gentle voice. The little one smiles at me. It must be because of my orange fisherman’s hat or the camera around my neck. I tell her that I won’t bother her for long since the child will have to eat. «Don’t worry, ask me what you want!» However, I tried not to get too lost in the chatter, and I started asking her the questions I had prepared. «Uhm… Then… I noticed the puddle as soon as I moved here: four years ago, more or less. But I think the puddle has been there long before. I think it is a small source of the Rio Corgnoleto, the stream that passes right below». Andrea’s house is right behind those willows that Emiliano showed me when he told me about the Rio where he saw yellow-bellied toads as a child. On  the day my boyfriend and I tried to go up the river – continues Andrea – he has been collaborating for years with the association “Tutori Stagni” [Ponds Tutors], an association dedicated to protecting wetlands. He occasionally goes clean some ponds here on the Karst. You will know, no? … once, we also tried somehow to clean our pool, but without disturbing the animals too much. There are toads, newts, some snakes and once we saw a leech! However, I think you could try to talk to the guys of the association». A gentleman who I sense to be Andrea’s father comes out from behind the house with a bowl full of cherries. «Look how many there were!» he says, addressing Andrea. I look at them smiling, and, even not to disturb them, I ask permission to go and take some pictures of the toads. The pool is very shady; vegetation is growing all around it. I count six toads, but I am very close, and some get scared and take refuge. I’m lying on the ground, face facing the water. Zzz… zzzhh… zzzhh… click – I take pictures, hoping some of them have turned out well when I look at them on the computer. «Would you like a glass of orange soda?» – I hear Andrea’s father’s voice turning to me. I get up from the worm-face-to-ground position, shake the mud off my clothes and thank you by saying I can’t stay long. «Take at least a few cherries, then!» Without having time to answer, I find myself with a tangle of cherries in my hands. I smile, greet and walk away, trying not to let the cherries slip from my hands.

Waiting for the bus to pass, I take the notebook I dedicated to toads out of my backpack. I write down what Andrea told me, the number of toads I counted, sketch the tank, and write down the approximate measurements. I check that I have taken at least two photos of the pool and the surrounding environment. I wonder if these toads and those of Emiliano constitute a single population. Between the two pools, there will be 500 meters away. Generally, amphibians are philopatric, meaning they tend to stay and always return to the same place. Reading one of the dissertations, I found a study stating that yellow-bellied toads move differently depending on the period. During spawning, both males and females move over shorter distances than they do during periods when there is no deposition. A toad can drive even for about half a kilometre in these periods. They are not distances from marathon runners, but it is not little for a toad who likes to sunbathe while soaking in the water! However, reproductive behaviour depends heavily on the availability of temporary ponds that form after heavy rains. So it makes sense that the tendency to move is more significant when it rarely rains. If the site to which the toads are “attached” is dry, they will look for another suitable for deposition and then move more. The problem is the fragmentation of the habitats ideal for the survival and reproduction of the yellow-bellied toads and many other species. It occurs above all in an urban environment such as Trieste. Trieste’s yellow-bellied toads live in places entirely separated from each other. Streets, buildings, vehicles, people are barriers to toads movements. Imagine being a toad and having to face all these obstacles. 

When the habitat is fragmented, the populations themselves are fragmented, formed by small groups of individuals isolated from each other. It means little migration and, therefore, low genetic variability. The same toads will consistently reproduce with the same toads. In the long run, the diversity in the population will decrease. A population with reduced genetic diversity is more vulnerable and sensitive to environmental variations. Suppose a “catastrophic” event occurs, such as the arrival of a pathogen. It will be easier for the population to become extinct because the individuals will not be quite different from each other. For example, among those few toads, there may not be someone who, for random reasons, has an immune system that can withstand that pathogen.

Likely, the toads of Andrea and Emiliano are not part of a real pa whole. However, they are not even populations wholly isolated from each other. They may be part of a system of metapopulations, that is, sub-populations that, despite behaving as distinct groups, are to some extent interconnected by the migration of some individuals. However, the two groups are relatively isolated because, except in the fragment of habitat in which they live, the surrounding environment is unfavourable. Perhaps, some courageous toad passes the willows, the asphalt, the fields – if they are lucky, he does not meet cars or people – and so he reaches the pool of Emiliano or vice versa, Andrea’s poll.

Unlike toads, although driving in Trieste is quite adventurous, I have to get on the bus to move quickly and safely around the city.

WEDNESDAY, 9 JUNE 2021

LOANA

DELLE LINFE STREET, 22 – AT 5:00 P.M.

San Giovanni Neighborhood. Delle Linfe Street is behind Farneto Wood and a short walk from San Giovanni Park. The park is within the area of the former psychiatric hospital. There, the psychiatrist Franco Basaglia fought to improve the living conditions of the mentally ill until the approval of a revolutionary law for Italy. The “Law 180” of 1978 decreed the closure of the asylums and marked the beginning of a new era for Italian psychiatry. Farneto Wood takes its name from the oak trees. In the early eighteenth century, the Austrian government planted these trees to protect the city from the Bora wind. Today there is no Bora, but the oaks of the Farneto shelter me from the sun while I walk towards Loana’s house. We  I arrive, as soon as Loana opens the gate, I find myself in that classic confusion that overlapping voices create; that of the master, who with a more or less decisive tone tries to be obeyed, and that “canine” consisting of a series of barks and frantic movements, with which dogs try to figure out who the stranger is invading their territory. I have a dog, too, and it’s easy for me to handle all this enthusiasm. When the two bad boys of Loana lift on their hind legs, I caress them without paying too much attention. I immediately feel comfortable. Loana is wearing slippers, a t-shirt and has braided hair. She puts down the watering can that she had in her hands. «I am happy to make you see my pond, come!». The courtyard is large but quite full of things. A rocking chair, a couple of tables, several vases with plants and flowers more or less native, a large structure of at least four square meters that looks like a pool without water, wrapped in a net that resembles one of those mosquito nets for beds. But the highlight is the pond. I didn’t expect to see that. The pond of Loana is anything but a swampy pond: they are in front of a tank designed for ornamental purposes. The tank is formed by the union of two circular structures, with a diameter of about one meter, built at ground level. On the water surface, which will have a depth of about 10-15 cm, large leaves of water lilies make the pool look like one of those ponds in the botanical gardens of many cities. Toads, however, are there! They are along with smooth newts, bloodsuckers, gerrids, dragonflies, papyrus plants, algae and gastropods. «I bought this house in 2011 and, with the renovations, buried under stones, bricks and waste, we found one of those old concrete tanks used to collect water. They were built over two small springs of water. So, si, we created an ornamental pond and immediately came the toads since there was water care a lot about them and other animals. When I find them outside the pond on October nights, trying to take refuge in the Farneto Wood for the winter, I take them and bring them back to the pool. I’m afraid that cars hit them out of here!» In the meantime, I’m on the edge of the pond. I look a little at her. Some of the toads. I listen to her. Sometimes I look up to nod and ask her questions. «Look, I had saved you a picture of what the San Giovanni district was like at the beginning of the XX century. I’m going to get it». I stop observing what is moving in the pond, and I try to count the yellow-bellied toads that I see under the lilies. Then I get up and go towards Loana. «Sit here with me, I’ll show you. Here is where we are. Do you see the old tub?» She points me to a small grey parallelepiped in a black and white photo. I ask Loana if she knows why; why although there are no shallow waters on the Karst, there are not one but two springs in her house. «Perhaps they come from the torrent flowing in the Farneto, but I cannot tell you». I begin to think that I have to understand something more about the geomorphology of Trieste and the karst plateau. Otherwise, I will never understand why the yellow-bellied toads are in some city neighbourhoods rather than others. However, before leaving, I ask Loana what that prominent structure with the net is. Before, I did not notice that it contained a gelatinous layer with a bright green colour on the bottom. «Do you like it? It is my incubator for spirulina! With this, I can produce a lot of spirulina! It is a seaweed with which I make cheese, creams, toothpaste».

I am fascinated by the people of Trieste. Loana has kindness and enthusiasm for toads and spirulina, Andrea has shyness that melts in a smile, and Emiliano has will and loquacity. I’m curious about their identity. As the Triestine writer, Mauro Covacich said in a dialogue with the politician Gianni Cuperlo, also from Trieste: “The people of Trieste are strange. The identity of the Triestine is non-belonging. They did not belong to Austria; they did not belong to the hated Titians; they did not belong to Italy. But among the many things inherited from the heritage of the Habsburgs, the Triestines – says Covacich – have inherited a certain health ante litteram, a cult of the body. We are all sports […] and nature lovers”.

Trieste itself is a strange city. When you arrive in the city by train and take a ride downtown, the impression is to be in a flat town overlooking the Adriatic Sea with cruise ships and elegant Habsburg-style buildings. But Trieste, like the Triestines, does not have a single identity. Trieste forces you to walk uphill, park uphill, and struggle even when you decide to take a bus and, at that point, you have to hold firmly to the handrail to counteract the force of gravity that, always uphill, it would take you to the other passengers. Among dilapidated buildings framed by scaffolding that sway in the days of Bora, Trieste welcomes you in buffets and osmizze, size quarters of wine and boiled eggs. The sanctuary of Mount Grisa, with its strange pyramidal shape, which dominates from the plateau, reminds you that the Karst is the other soul of the city. The rude and peasant soul, but equally fascinating. On the Karst, the fields are clinging to the rugged terrain, the farmers to irrigate them have learned to exploit the natural resurgences emerging below. Here is where another Trieste begins. That of the hypogeal dreams and the researches of the engineer Anton Friedrich Lindner, who in 1840 discovered the Giant Cave while, in the service of the Habsburg Empire, he was looking for underground water reserves for the water supply of the city. The city of the many groups of speleologists continuing to discover new cavities among the thousands already known, scattered through the woods of the Karst. I learned all this by living in the city, walking through its streets, woods, palaces, and crawling into its bowels. The Giant Cave is one of the most spectacular caves in the Karst and the world, visited by thousands of tourists every year. Seeing it, I began to understand more about the area’s geomorphology in which Trieste was built. The maze of chambers and underground passages that branch off under the Karst has formed and continues to develop because the limestone rock of the karst plateau swallows the waters. But Trieste does not extend entirely on this plateau. Part of the city stands on a narrow strip of land characterised by alternating layers of sandstone and marl. Geologists call  “flysch” this type of soil. Marl is a kind of delicate, silty and clayey matrix. It looks like well-compacted mud. This belt of ground is geologically very different from the area of the nearby karst plateau. The marly-arenaceous substrate is mostly waterproof: water slips over it. Where these layers and limestone come into contact, the water, until then underground, stops digging and collects to escape forming springs. The yellow-bellied toads were able to exploit these springs to their advantage. They colonised those environments where water somehow gushed out, piling on the surface. The Triestines, close to these surface aquifers, have built pools, tanks, water troughs, cisterns and sinks. And so, the toads also exploited these small architectures within the changing landscape and the growing city.

SATURDAY, 12 JUNE 2021

GIACOMO

ROSE BACKSTREET, 2 – AT 3:00 P.M.

Today I am in the neighbourhood of Roiano. The district, a valley sloping down of countryside, vineyards, groves, arose right in the flysch strip of land. Rose Backstreet is somewhat upstream. The town is still a few minutes away down. The road, silent, goes down in the middle of a forest. There is no one, and it seems surreal that less than two kilometres away there is the city’s centre. AIsee a big irony see and a truck parked at the end of the road, starting to think I had taken the wrong road. I don’t see anyone. I look around, and there is neither an intercom. I call Giacomo, the guy I’m meeting. After three minutes, a boy comes toward me. Giacomo turns the key in the padlock of the chain that holds the heavy gates together. «Hello, come and meet Giulia and Berto. I answered the announcement on Facebook, but they will tell you more about toads». A slight climb leads to a small courtyard hidden by uncultivated vegetation and old objects scattered here and there from the gate: a table and some plastic chairs. There’s also a tiny little house that looks like a tool shed. Two guys come out holding a plate of pasta. They are Giulia and Berto – and addressing them – she is the girl interested in toads. She also wanted to know something about this place, and I told her that you knew more than I did. Then I take her to see the tub with toads». Giulia has a smile like a few and welcomes me with a warm «Sure! What beautiful are those frogs, no?» At that point, all it takes is one question for you to enthusiastically start telling me everything you know about that strange place in Rose Backstreet. Now and then, he turns to Berto – who sat on one of those plastic chairs with his hearty plate of pasta salad – looks up when she asks him to confirm what he is telling me. Nodding, he adds some details and resumes eating. Fortunately, it is cold pasta because Giulia seems to have completely forgotten about it. «There are twenty-two thousand square meters of land. Berto and I took it on loan for free use in 2013. Not everything is entrusted to us. A piece belongs to Giacomo. We don’t live here;  we just come here to learn something about how to grow or to relax and to stay cool when everyone goes to the sea. In Trieste, an association called BIOEST connects landowners that do not use their lands with people who want to cultivate something. This land has been abandoned since 1880. I think the frogs are from before we arrived!». Today Giulia and Alberto planted vines, potatoes, raspberries, hops and aubergines. We do not live on what we have managed to cultivate, but the soil is quite fertile because some streams cross the valley of Roiano. In the trees to the left of the entrance gate, you can see the Rosani stream. Afterwards, if you feel like it, go and visit the old washhouse they built along the river. It’s nearby. But I think you’re interested in frogs… They are so pretty … I love them too!» Giulia walked towards the concrete tub that she could see from the courtyard. The tank is full of water, and some black rubber hoses connect it to the vegetable gardens. However, there are the toads, the frogs, as Giulia calls them. They stay immersed in the water with their hind legs stretched out. Some male has found a female available. As Nicola said, yellow-bellied toads have a type of lumbar amplitude. It means that the lucky toad hugs his girl by wrapping her at the junction of the thighs. And in fact, I see them right there. Giulia tells me that Berto has placed at the mouth of every tube that carries water from the tank to the field a net with very fine meshes so that the eggs or tadpoles do not risk being taken by the flow ending up in the garden.

Rose Backstreet is a weird place. In addition to the timeless objects stacked in Giulia and Berto’s courtyard, there is also a bizarre set of stuff in the part of Giacomo. A solar oven is nothing more than a giant parabola made of mirrors that reflect the sun’s rays in a single central point; a guitar; a table full of books; some hive; and many blackberries. And then there’s the toad tub. Unlike Giulia and Berto’s one, this one is full of many tiny aquatic plants that are not by chance called water lentils. These seedlings have only one small round and floating leaf that measures 2-3 millimetres in length; there is a thin root floating in the water from the leaf. The water lentil has a very high speed of multiplication, and often the bodies of water are entirely covered by a carpet made of thousands of seedlings. I remember that Nicola told me that the presence of this plant reduces the oxygen in the water, and it is not a good thing for tadpoles that breathe exclusively in water through the gills. But Giacomo promised me he would clean it.

SUNDAY 13 JUNE 2021

DORIAN 

COSTALUNGA STREET, 9/1 – AT 10:30 A.M.

I am again near the cycle path of Rosandra Valley, not far from the cemetery of Trieste. Dorian is a man who makes the guide for a dissemination association in the naturalistic field. He met Nicola and immediately got in touch with him when he discovered he had a tub with yellow-bellied toads. «Look, I noticed the tub only a couple of months ago when I decided to cut all the uncultivated brushwood that grew there at the bottom of the garden. The vegetation entirely covered the tank», he explains to me in a quiet voice. «Then, after a few days, I saw that there were toads. I haven’t seen eggs or tadpoles yet, but maybe I looked closer. The interesting thing, though – says Dorian approaching the fence that separates his garden from the neighbour’s field – is that, see there! It is the hole that my neighbour Maurizio has just dug. He also told me he saw the toads and the tadpoles!». Maurizio is not at home at the time, but Dorian leaves me his mobile number. «He’s a guy who may seem rude, but he’s easy to use; call him! As soon as I see him, I tell him that you will contact him for the toads».

When the yellow-bellied toads have more pools within a few meters – I remember – they choose the smaller and well sunny ones for spawning, while they use the larger ones, with deeper waters and more vegetation for rest and feeding. The toads feed more or less any animal of the suitable size to be swallowed: insects, crustaceans, earthworms, millipedes, snails. Maybe Dorian’s tub is what the toads used to eat. That could probably be why Dorian didn’t see tadpoles while Maurizio did. 

The chat with Dorian was quick but very useful, and Dorian gave me all the time I needed to take some nice pictures of the toads. Coming home and looking at the computer shots, it occurs to me that I still haven’t been able to see a toad in the characteristic unkenreflex position. When looking for an image of a yellow-bellied toad, you will find many photos that depict it in this posture. The word “unkenreflex” means “reflection of the yellow-bellied toad”, “unke” as Nicola told me at Santa Croce, means “toad” in German. It was, in fact, a German researcher who first described the curious behaviour and coined this term. In reality, this position, taken as a passive defence behaviour, is not adopted exclusively by the yellow-bellied toads but also by other amphibians. When they feel threatened, these animals twist the body, curving the back and bringing the front limbs in the direction of the head to show the colouring of the abdomen. In this way, they hope to discourage the predator, revealing the bright colours that indicate toxicity. The fascinating peculiarity of this behaviour is that these little toads only adopt it when they are sure to have been identified. At the same time, they exploit the grey-brownish colouration of the back to get confused with the environment. They coexist two seemingly conflicting defensive strategies, crypsis to avoid being noticed by predators and aposematism if things go wrong. Perhaps I have not yet seen a toad in the unkenreflex position because – and this is a little comforting – I have not put them in a feeling threatened.

MONDAY, 28 JUNE 2021

MAURIZIO

SAINT MARIA MADDALENA STREET (COSTALUNGA STREET CORNER) – AT 7:30 P.M.

The opportunity to see a yellow-bellied toad do the unkenreflex happens to me just when I return to Costalunga Street to talk with Maurizio. In the field next to Dorian’s house, I see a man working without a shirt in the garden. Although it is almost eight o’clock in the evening, the sun is still warm. I pronounce the name “Maurizio” aloud and with an interrogative tone to ask for confirmation that Maurizio is him. «Hello! Come, forgive me, I’m a little sweaty», Maurizo says to me in Triestine idiom while wiping his forehead with the back of his hand, avoiding getting dirty with the palm and the fingers already dirty with the soil. «I’ve been taking the ground for a short time, a couple of months. I’m trying to make something grow, but there’s a lot of work. Come, I’ll show you the toads», he continues. Maurizio leads the way to the front of the hole. «As soon as I rented the land, I noticed a trickle of water coming down the road that passes above; I don’t know if it’s a leak. So, I tried to dig a hole into picking it up and using it for the garden, and it works now. Chickens can drink from it!» The hole looks like a big, deep puddle. At the deepest point, there will be twenty centimetres of water. It is cloudy, muddy, dirty with all the sediment dissolved. Maurizio tells me that he has not put waterproof layers on the bottom for now. He says the water leak is constant from what he saw, so the pool keeps filling with water. He fixed a pipe that connects it to the garden so he could rinse it. «I put a fine-mesh in front of the mouth because I thought that otherwise, the toads would get inside». Despite having another job, in just two months, Maurizio has ploughed, sown, taken hens which he feeds every day – just every day because there are no holidays with pets. Then, he dug a hole to make a puddle and even had the foresight to consider the welfare of toads who began to live in it. Anyway, as I read in the university dissertation, these animals have not too many problems with the water quality. It can also be filthy, muddy, polluted by salts or manure. Toads do not care about crystal clear waters. They only want to ensure no predators and competitors for resources at the site where they will lay eggs. No frogs and especially no fish! Fish are the most predators of eggs and tadpoles. Then there are dragonfly larvae, diving beetles, Trichoptera, salamander and newt larvae, and occasionally corvids and seagulls. I observe again the hole dug by Maurizio. Few are predators that could inhabit a pool like this. Moreover, for the deposition, the females look for waters exposed to the sun and able to warm up quickly, where the tadpoles can complete the metamorphosis in a short time. The more the water heats up, the less it takes for them to become adults, thus remaining less exposed to the risk of desiccation or the few predators present in these temporary bodies of water. In its mess, Maurizio’s pit is perfect. The best nursery a tod mom could wish for.

«My partner loves animals. She is an animal activist! When she saw them, she was delighted. Then there are the little ones, do you see them?» – Maurizio squats down and puts his arm in the water. A couple of adults get scared and jump out. Maurizio catches them and approaches to show them to me. I smile. They are wonderful. I explained to Maurizio that his toads are called yellow-bellied toads and that after holding them in your hand, it is better not to touch your eyes or mouth because their skin secretions could be irritating. I also tell him that once in Trieste, they were pretty standard, favoured by the presence and constant maintenance of pools and tanks for the collection of water like his. At that point, the toad escapes from Maurizio’s hands. It jumped on the edge of the hole. I see him writhing, bending its back and raising its front legs as if covering its eyes. You can see the yellow spots on his belly. And so, I also saw a toad in the unkenreflex position.

FRIDAY, 2 JULY 2021

FATHER FABIO

COLOGNA STREET, 59 – AT 7:30 P.M.

In Saint Peter and Paul Church, the Friday afternoon mass ends at 7:30 pm. I hope to intercept Father Fabio as soon as it ends. One of the dissertations I read at the Museum concerned wholly about a yellow-bellied toads population living in the church’s courtyard. Once I finished reading it, the first thing that came to my mind was that Nicola had not told me about it. «It’s gone. They took down the tank and the rest of the garden to build a basketball court. I did not come back, but if you want to go talk to the priest, he should still be Father Fabio». As I walk along a sunny Fabio Severo Street, looking for the shadow projected by the eaves of the buildings, I continue to remember Nicola’s cynical and saddened words. The view of the church brings me back to the present. This church is unmistakable with its dodecagonal plan and an appearance reminiscent of a Japanese pagoda. As I go up the entrance staircase, I check the clock: it’s just 7:32 pm. I’m waiting for everyone to leave, primarily ladies of a certain age, but it’s still July, and it’s Friday. I observe from a distance the priest finishing arranging the various drapes and fabrics used in the celebrations. I forget to have a hat on my head (the usual orange fisherman’s hat), and I go in. I ask about Father Fabio, explaining what I am doing there. I try to show myself alien to the facts I already know. I do not name the toads, but I explain that I read a dissertation from 2006 that concerned a sandstone brick basin in the semi-abandoned courtyard adjacent to the church. «Yes, I am Father Fabio. Yes… there was a tank in 2006 and inside those toads lived, what are they called? … yellow-bellied…? But now there are no more». I understand that Father Fabio wants to cut it short, then I wonder if it is possible to see where precisely this tank was. «I can tell you that an underground spring supplied the tank, but it is useless to show you where it was. Now there is nothing… They were doing some work because the parish wanted to build a basketball court for the kids to play, but it’s all blocked. They dug up other springs and water. I can tell you that before there was a soap factory, they used water for production. It would help if you talked to a friend of mine, he knows about these items: he knows many pools on the Karst. But now it’s late, and I have to finish closing». Father Fabio greets me so, in a hurry and without telling me who this person is, his friend, he could tell me something more.

The dissertation on the church toads’ population reported some fundamental points on the question of the yellow-bellied toads in Trieste. The first point is that, in the urban and periurban areas, the yellow-bellied toad turns out to be one of the amphibians most affected by the loss of reproductive habitats. Fifteen years later, things have not improved at all. On the contrary, the reproductive sites shrink, often permanently dried up or converted to building use, as the church’s situation in Cologna Street testifies. A second point concerns the difficulty of coming to know and registering the habitats suitable for the reproduction of these animals, as in the urban fabric, the toads tend to prefer a type of environment represented by pools in home gardens and private courtyards. These are tiny environments that none reported because they are considered of little value. The third point, even if someone signals the tanks, since no one deals with communication about ponds’ value and management, most are abandoned by the owners to avoid the accumulation of water and the presence of mosquitoes. These environments, left without maintenance, tend to fill with leaves and debris and become unusable by toads and other amphibians. Finally, in some of the tanks that still resist, it is not uncommon to find fish because someone introduces them, even if in good faith. Fish render impossible the reproduction and the survival of both the yellow-bellied toads and most of the other species of amphibians. 

The evening breeze gives me some relief from the heat, but I feel a little saddened by how things went. It’s weird to think about it. It often happens, more and more often, without realising it. But up close, I can’t get over how now there are no more tanks or toads, not to mention a basketball court. On the way home, I kept wondering how it was possible to knock down a tank where yellow-bellied toads lived. And, it was well known. Bombina variegata is a species listed in Annex II to the “Berne Convention” and in Annexes II and IV to the “Habitats Directive” 92/43/EEC. Annex II to both standards lists those species that are strictly protected. Both measures have been drawn up to contribute to the preservation of biodiversity through habitat conservation. The sandstone masonry pool and the small garden were one of these habitats. As reported in Annex IV of the Habitats Directive, the yellow-bellied toad is among those species for which it is necessary to adopt strict protection measures. Any form of collection, killing, detention, and trade for commercial purposes is prohibited. But as it turns out, none of this made the toads count when someone had to decide if build a basketball court – a small basketball court in the church of Cologna Street in the city of Trieste.