The Curious Annual Ritual of Frog Shuttling and Why People Do It

You may have seen videos in your social media feed of animal lovers saving a baby chick who falls into a storm drain, or a dog trapped by a flood or a baby elephant struggling to get out of a mud pit. These human-saves-animal videos often go viral at least in part because of how rare they seem ... but what if they happened predictably every year? It turns out in some places, they do.

An annual ritual known to volunteers as the "frog shuttle" brings residents together to help frogs who cross a dangerous highway to make the trek safely. The sight of this crossing must be something to see. The quest to save the frogs draws hundreds of people and has even had the city of Portland considering building a highway underpass to allow the frogs to cross more safely. If they do, hopefully the frogs are better readers than those deer who never seem to see those clearly marked deer crossing signs.