California IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Detour Set Up to Protect Salamanders

Once again, San Francisco commuters have ceded the right of way to the lowly salamander, detouring around South Park Drive to allow the newts safe passage to their breeding grounds just across the usually busy roadway. Each winter, hundreds of the semiaquatic salamanders emerge from hibernation in Tilden Park and begin pouring across the road in the Berkeley hills to lay their eggs. They head back across the road in spring to resume hibernation. As in the past, local officials have closed off the street to allow for the annual migration. The road closure usually lasts at least three days, a park spokesman said.