Wildlife experts are heading to a site in Tallaght to see if any amphibians can be rescued after the creatures' swampy home was destroyed.
Land left abandoned at Sean Moore Park had grown into a vital habitat for frogs, bats, newts, and an endangered species of eels.
However, it was flattened by heavy machinery in recent days in what's been branded an act of "environmental vandalism".
Heartbroken to find tallaghts wetlands completely destroyed today. This was a vibrant multilayered ecosystem, home to protected Newts, Frogs, Bats & critically endangered European eels. @sdublincoco assured us this area & inhabitants would be protected. Environmental vandalism. https://t.co/3r90hQE6oq pic.twitter.com/pQUzlmXv7S
— The HSI (@HerpSocIreland) September 21, 2019
Collie Ennis, science officer with the Herpetological Society of Ireland, explained that the wetlands were a unique landscape that won't recover for decades - if they recover at all.
He observed: "It was a beautiful mosaic of different tiny habitats in this small park area - not much bigger than a football pitch.
"It was very rich in invertebrates - so you had your spiders, your dragonfly larvae, all sorts of stuff - in these small, shallow, wet areas... which in turn attracted our newts and our frogs, which in turn attracted bigger predators which were feeding on them."
Mr Ennis said it was "heartbreaking" to discover the flattened land.
He added there's been no official response regarding what happened, suggesting he has a feeling it was a mistake or an oversight.
He argued: "It's just not good enough anymore - we're so aware nowadays of the importance of biodiversity, and the few wild spaces we have in our ever expanding urban sprawl."
