🔗 Share this article

It is Friday evening at half past seven, but instead of going out or relaxing at home, I've caught a train to a town in Wiltshire to join local helpers from a toad patrol. These dedicated individuals sacrifice their nights to protect the native amphibian community.

A Worrying Decline in Numbers

The common toad is growing more uncommon. A recent study led by an amphibian and reptile charity showed that the UK toad population have almost halved since 1985. Seeing a creature that has been a stalwart of the UK landscape in decrease is described as "concerning" by researchers. Toads "don't need very particular environments" and "should be able to live quite well in most of habitats in Britain," meaning if even they are not managing to survive, "it kind of suggests that things are not as they should be."

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

The Danger from Traffic

Though the research didn't examine the reasons for the decline, cars certainly plays a part. Calculations indicate that 20 tons of toads are killed on UK roads every year – in other words, hundreds of thousands. Unlike frogs, which might be happy to mate "with just a small container," toads prefer big bodies of water. Their capacity to stay out of water for more time than frogs means they can travel further to reach them – often long distances. They usually follow their traditional paths – it's typical for mature amphibians to go back to their birth pond to mate.

Migration Patterns

Fittingly, the first toads begin their quest for a mate around February 14th, but others travel as late as April, waiting until it gets dark and travelling after sunset. During that period, toads start moving from wherever they have been overwintering "all pretty much at the same time."

One volunteer, who grew up in the region and has been trying to protect its toad population since he was a boy, explains that "They've got just one focus: to go and have an orgy." If their route happens to a street, they could be killed by traffic, and that mating period would never happen – preventing a next generation of toads from being produced.

Toad Patrols Throughout the UK

Seeing hundreds of dead toads on nearby streets "resonates deeply with people," and has led to the formation of toad patrols across the UK – hundreds of organizations are officially listed with a national initiative. These teams pick up toads and transport them over streets in buckets, as well as recording the quantity of toads they find and advocating for other protection measures, such as blocked roads and underground wildlife tunnels.

Volunteers usually work during the migration season, when amphibian movements are more regular. However, this implies they can miss groups of young toads, which, having been eggs and then tadpoles, exit their water habitats over an irregular timetable in the end of summer. Because of their small stature – just a couple of cm wide – "they are destroyed by car traffic." And as being run over "essentially crushes them," it's more difficult to collect information on them. At least when mature amphibians are lost, their remains can be counted.

Year-Round Work

In contrast to most patrols, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth season of functioning, go out year-round – not nightly, but when weather are damp, or if a member has reported about a toad sighting in their messaging app. When I request to accompany them on patrol, they admit it is "not ideal conditions" – winter dormancy has begun and it's been a arid period – but several of the volunteers willingly accept to patrol their area with me and search for any toads. "Should anyone can find any toads tonight, that pair will spot one," says the patrol manager, pointing to her teenage child and the experienced member. We've been out for two hours without a single toad sighting, and now they have climbed over a barbed wire fence to inspect beneath some wood.

Family Participation

The family duo became part of the group a year and a half ago. The youngster adores all things wildlife and has an goal to become a conservationist, so his parent started to look for activities they could do together to protect local wildlife. Now she loves it as much as he does, the middle-aged small business owner tells me – so when the team was looking for a new manager lately, she volunteered for the role.

The youth, too, has been instrumental in the group. A clip he created, urging the local council to close a road through a nature reserve during migration season, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a year of campaigning, the authority agreed to an "restricted access" rule between evening and morning from February through to April. Most drivers duly avoided the route.

Other Wildlife and Difficulties

A few cars go by when I'm out on patrol and we discover some victims as a consequence – no amphibians, but several crushed salamanders. We see one live amphibian as well, and the teenager is especially excited to see a daddy longlegs, which moves in his hands. Yet despite the group's hardest attempts to let me see a toad, the local population has clearly gone dormant for the winter. It appears that I couldn't have found any more luck anywhere else in the nation – all the patrol groups I contact clarify that it's near-impossible at this time of year.

They project rescuing nearly 10,000 grown amphibians during migration

A message I receive from a different helper, who has kindly taken the trouble to check for toads in a famous site, considered the biggest tracked toad population in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the subject line: "No toads." However, in February and March, he informs me, the team plans to assist around ten thousand adult toads over the street.

Effectiveness and Limitations

How much of a difference can these organizations actually make? "The reality that volunteers are doing this regularly on chilly, wet and miserable evenings is remarkable," says an researcher. "That's something that very much should be celebrated." However, while rescue teams are able to slow the decline, they can't stop it completely – not least because traffic is not the only threat.

Other Dangers

The global warming has resulted in longer periods of dry weather, which create the wrong conditions for some of the animals that toads consume, such as invertebrates, while higher water temperatures have caused an rise of toxic plants, which can be harmful to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to wake up from their dormancy more frequently, interfering with the resource preservation crucial to their life cycle. Loss of environment – especially the loss of big water bodies – is an additional threat.

Experts are "often concerned about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on wildlife," but "It's important in just their presence." But toads do have an important role in the ecosystem, consuming pretty much any invertebrates or tiny organisms they can fit in their mouths and in turn sustaining a number of predators, such as hedgehogs and otters. Enhancing situations for toads – ie building water habitats, conserving woodland and constructing amphibian passages – "benefits for a wide range of other species."

Cultural Significance

An additional motive to work to preserve toads around is their "historical significance," adds an specialist. Myths and folklore around toads date back {centuries|hundred