🔗 Share this article

It's Friday night at 7:30, but rather than heading to the pub or relaxing at home, I've caught a train to a market town in Wiltshire to meet up with local helpers from a amphibian rescue group. These committed people sacrifice their evenings to protect the native amphibian community.

A Worrying Decline in Numbers

The Bufo bufo is becoming increasingly rare. A recent research conducted by an amphibian and reptile charity revealed that the British common toad numbers have dropped by half since the mid-1980s. Observing a species that has been a stalwart of the British countryside in decline is labeled "worrying" by experts. Toads "don't require very particular environments" and "ought to live successfully in the majority of habitats in the UK," so if even they are not managing to survive, "it kind of suggests that the ecosystem is unbalanced."

Toad populations across the UK have declined by almost 50% since the 1980s

The Danger from Traffic

Though the study didn't cover the reasons for the decline, traffic is a major factor. Estimates indicate that 20 tonnes of toads are killed on UK roads every year – that is, several hundred thousand. Unlike frogs, which might be happy to mate "if you left out a bucket of water," toads prefer large ponds. Their capacity to stay out of water for longer than frogs allows they can travel further to reach them – sometimes hundreds of metres. They tend to follow their ancestral migration routes – it's typical for adult toads to go back to their natal pond to mate.

Migration Patterns

Fittingly, the first toads begin their quest for a mate around February 14th, but some move as far as spring, waiting until it gets night and travelling after sunset. During that time, toads begin migrating from wherever they have been hibernating "almost simultaneously."

One volunteer, who was raised in the area and has been trying to protect its amphibians since he was a child, notes that "They've got just one focus: to go and mate." If their route happens to a road, they could be killed by traffic, and that breeding season would never happen – preventing a new generation of toads from being born.

Toad Patrols Throughout the United Kingdom

Seeing many of dead toads on local roads "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has resulted in the formation of toad patrols across the UK – hundreds of organizations are officially listed with a national initiative. These teams pick up toads and carry them over streets in buckets, as well as recording the number of toads they find and advocating for other protection measures, such as road closures and underground wildlife tunnels.

Volunteers usually work during the migration season, when amphibian movements are more regular. However, this means they can overlook numbers of toadlets, which, having existed as spawn and then juveniles, leave their water habitats over an unpredictable schedule in the end of summer. Because of their small stature – just a couple of cm wide – "they can get obliterated by vehicles." And as being hit "basically turns them into mush," it's more difficult to get data on them. At least when adult toads are killed, their remains can be tallied.

Year-Round Work

In contrast to many groups, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth year of functioning, go out throughout the year – not nightly, but when conditions are warm and wet, or if someone has reported about a toad sighting in their group chat. When I ask to join them on patrol, they concede it is "not a toady night" – toad hibernation season has begun and it's been a arid period – but a few of the helpers gamely agree to walk up and down their area with me and see what we can find. "If anyone can find any toads tonight, those two will spot one," says the patrol manager, indicating her teenage child and the longtime volunteer. We've been out for two hours without a glimpse of any amphibians, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to check under some wood.

Community Participation

The mother and son became part of the group a while back. The teenager adores all things wildlife and has an goal to become a conservationist, so his parent started to search for activities they could do together to help local wildlife. Now she loves it as much as he does, the 41-year-old small business owner tells me – so when the team was seeking a new manager lately, she decided to step up.

The teenager, too, has been instrumental in the group. A video he made, imploring the municipal authority to block a road through a protected area during breeding time, swung the decision the team's way. After a year of lobbying, the authority agreed to an "restricted access" rule between evening and morning from late winter through to April. The majority of motorists respected and avoided the route.

Other Wildlife and Difficulties

A few cars go past when I'm out on duty and we discover some victims as a consequence – no toads, but several crushed salamanders. We spot one living newt as well, and the youngster is particularly pleased to see a daddy longlegs, which moves in his palms. Yet in spite of the team's hardest attempts to let me see a toad, the native community has obviously settled down for the colder months. It appears that I wouldn't have had any more luck elsewhere in the nation – all the rescue teams I reach out to explain that it's near-impossible at this time of year.

The group expects to help approximately 10,000 adult toads across the road

One email I get from another volunteer, who has generously taken the trouble to look for toads in a noted location, considered the largest accurately monitored toad population in the UK, reaches me with the subject line: "No toads." However, in late winter, he tells me, the group expects to help around 10,000 mature amphibians across the road.

Impact and Challenges

What level of impact can these groups actually make? "The reality that people are performing this consistently on cold, damp and unpleasant evenings is quite extraordinary," says an researcher. "That's something that very much should be celebrated." However, while toad patrols are able to reduce the drop, they can't stop it completely – not least because vehicles is not the only threat.

Additional Threats

The climate crisis has meant longer periods of drought, which create the wrong conditions for some of the creatures that toads consume, such as invertebrates, while higher water temperatures have caused an increase of toxic plants, which can be toxic to toads. Milder winters also lead toads to wake up from their dormancy more often, disrupting the energy conservation crucial to their existence. Habitat destruction – especially the loss of big water bodies – is an additional threat.

Experts are "always a bit worried about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on wildlife," but "There is a big value in just their presence." But toads play an significant part in the food chain, consuming almost any small creatures or tiny organisms they can swallow and in turn sustaining a number of predators, such as hedgehogs and otters. Enhancing situations for toads – ie building water habitats, protecting forests and installing toad tunnels – "we'll improve them for a whole bunch of additional wildlife."

Cultural Significance

An additional motive to work to preserve toads around is their "important cultural value," notes an specialist. Myths and folklore around toads go back {centuries|hundred