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On December 25, 2023, some snapshots of mine that demonstrated the total drying of the Vallvidrera reservoir were published in La Vanguardia's Readers' Photos, in an article titled The death of the Vallvidrera reservoir.
As reported by Barcelona City Council, the emptying of the swamp began on June 15, 2020 and, as we all already know, the reason was the eradication of invasive species. The time it would take for the swamp to empty or how long it would last empty was not explained or indicated.
The truth is that of all the times I have gone to the swamp since June 15 to photograph the local fauna, I never saw it 100% empty until last December 25. The water level was getting lower and lower, but there came a time when a long period of time began in which the water film was below minimums and apparently remained constant.
The swamp seemed to never empty, but the drought finished doing the job, a job that took three and a half years to complete. It is evident that in 2020 the drought that we are currently suffering had not yet begun.
Experts assure that drought periods last about three years and that the current one had begun in 2022, therefore, it will end in May of next year 2025. Given that the large swamps are almost empty today, it seems that this could be fulfilled. calendar.
On April 26, 2021, I went to photograph the Llobregat fountains, but to get there you must first pass through the La Baells reservoir, whose construction began at the end of the dictatorship, in 1972, and was completed in 1976. The purpose of this reservoir, with a double-curved wall, is to supply water to Barcelona and its metropolitan area.
On April 26, 2021 I photographed La Baells. It is huge and on that date it was completely full as my photographs show. When I saw it I thought: "We have water for a while." How wrong I was! I did not imagine that the following year the severe drought would begin.
The current state of all the swamps in Spain can be consulted. The Baells has a total capacity of 109 hm3, and as of 03-11-2024, the stored water was 21.48 hm3, which means it is at 19.7% of its capacity. The truth is that drought cycles can begin and end gradually or abruptly, and their beginning and end can be difficult to determine due to climate variability and the influence of global climate phenomena.
I do not know if the current drought cycle will end in 2025 as stated. And I don't know if he's going to do it gradually or abruptly. What I do know is that from the night of last Friday, 03-08-2024 until noon on Sunday, 03-10-2024, it was raining almost without interruption, a phenomenon that I had not seen for years and that has had an effect on the Vallvidrera reservoir. three months later from 12-25-2023.
So in a similar way to the biblical quote 15:3 from the first epistle to the Corinthians in the New Testament where it says that "... on the third day he rose again..." here we can say that the Vallvidrera swamp "on the third month he rose again."
The swamp is no longer dry, and if the prediction is true it will fill naturally, since it can be said that it is enabled to fill artificially like a swimming pool, a tap is opened and it fills. The most interesting thing is that this day and a half of rain has produced enough water accumulation for life to overflow.
I went today, 03-11-2024, to see the swamp and it is "full" of batracians, there are many and quite large ones. Using Google Lens with some of my photographs I have been able to verify that these amphibians are the common toad (Bufo bufo) and from what I have read their activity is basically nocturnal except during the mating period, and that during the day they remain hidden, buried superficially in soil. They also hibernate from October onwards, but they can interrupt dormancy if periods of good weather appear.
With the rains of the previous two days, they have come out of their burrows and have hoarded the little water that has been stored in the swamp, and in broad daylight they show intense activity as a result of already being in the breeding season.
Wide-bodied, with a head attached to the trunk without a visible neck, they have dry skin covered with protuberances as if they were warts. The underside is dirty white with gray and black spots. Bulbous eyes with yellow or copper irises and horizontal slit-shaped pupils.
This type of toads has sexual dimorphism, namely, females are browner and larger (13 to 15 cm in length) while males are smaller (about 8 cm in length) and grayer. However, what has caught my attention the most are the protuberances just behind the eyes. They are two bulging, elongated and obliquely arranged regions. They are the parotoid glands that generate a biotoxic substance, bufotoxin, which they use to deter predators. In other words, these toads are poisonous on contact and I did not know this until I was informed.
Bufotoxin is a substance that is formed as a result of the union of bufofagin with arginine. It acts at an enzymatic level by inhibiting the Na/K ATPase pump in the heart muscle, blocking sodium channels. This will lead to an increase in the concentration of intracellular calcium that will increase the force of contraction of the heart and at the same time reduce the heart rate. They will produce a series of symptoms at the cardiac level, such as arrhythmias, sinus blockage, fibrillation and cardiac arrest, which can lead to death.
However, by contact, that is, picking up the toad with your hand, it is not inherently dangerous in terms of poison. Bufo toads cannot spew venom through their skin, but they can exude toxins that can irritate the skin and eyes if not handled carefully. To reach these extremes of intoxication, the poison must be ingested or the poison must come into contact with the mucous membranes. And this is when you have to be vigilant when you go to the swamp and there are toads.
Many people go to the swamp, families on weekends, schools on excursions, and when I say families and schools I say that there are children. And what do all children do when we see frogs and toads? Well try to catch them.
And of course, after catching a toad, involuntary everyday gestures appear, such as rubbing the eyes, and children start eating without having washed their hands, scratching, etc. In other words, certain poisoning occurs. Many people also go with dogs, leaving them loose, and the most likely to suffer from severe poisoning are the dogs. Just by catching a toad in your mouth your luck is already cast. There are several reported cases of dogs that have died from toad poisoning.
So if I have seen signs near the swamp indicating that you should not feed the wild boars, why is there no sign warning of the risk of poisoning from contact with the toads?
