🔗 Share this article

It's Friday night at half past seven, but instead of going out or relaxing at home, I've caught a train to a town in Wiltshire to meet up with local helpers from a toad patrol. These dedicated individuals give up their evenings to safeguard the native amphibian community.

An Alarming Decline in Numbers

The common toad is becoming increasingly uncommon. 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 creature that has been a fixture of the British countryside in decline is labeled "worrying" by researchers. Toads "don't require very particular environments" and "should be able to live quite well in the majority of habitats in Britain," meaning if even they are struggling to persist, "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 study didn't cover the reasons for the decline, cars certainly plays a part. Calculations suggest that 20 tons of toads are killed on UK roads every year – that is, several hundred thousand. Unlike frogs, which might be happy to mate "with just a bucket of water," toads favor big bodies of water. Their ability to stay out of water for more time than frogs means they can journey farther to reach them – sometimes hundreds of metres. They tend to follow their traditional paths – it's common for mature amphibians to return to their natal pond to mate.

Breeding Habits

Fittingly, the first toads start their journey for a partner around Valentine's day, but some move as late as spring, until it gets night and moving through the night. During that time, toads start moving from wherever they have been overwintering "almost simultaneously."

One volunteer, who was raised in the area and has been working to save its toad population since he was a child, explains that "Their sole purpose: to go and mate." If their path crosses a street, they could all get run over, and that breeding season would be lost – preventing a next generation of toads from being born.

Toad Patrols Throughout the United Kingdom

Finding many of dead toads on nearby streets "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has resulted in the creation of rescue teams across the UK – hundreds of organizations are officially listed with a countrywide program. These groups collect toads and carry them over streets in buckets, as well as counting the number of toads they find and advocating for other protection measures, such as blocked roads and underground wildlife tunnels.

Patrols tend to operate during the breeding period, when amphibian movements are frequent. However, this implies they can miss groups of toadlets, which, having been eggs and then juveniles, exit their ponds over an unpredictable schedule in late summer. Because of their size – just a couple of cm wide – "they can get obliterated by car traffic." And as being hit "basically turns them into mush," it's more difficult to collect information on them. At least when mature amphibians are killed, their carcasses can be tallied.

Year-Round Efforts

Unlike most patrols, one local team, who are in their eighth season of operating, go out year-round – not nightly, but when weather are damp, or if someone has posted about a toad sighting in their messaging app. When I request to accompany them on duty, they concede it is "not ideal conditions" – winter dormancy has started and it's been a arid period – but a few of the helpers willingly accept to patrol their area with me and search for any toads. "If anyone can find any toads tonight, that pair will find one," says the group coordinator, indicating her teenage child and the longtime volunteer. We've been out for two hours without a single toad sighting, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to check under some logs.

Community Involvement

The family duo joined the group a while back. The youngster adores all things nature-related and has an ambition to become a conservationist, so his mother started to look for things they could do together to protect local wildlife. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the 41-year-old small business owner tells me – so when the group was looking for a fresh coordinator lately, she decided to step up.

The youth, too, has been instrumental in the organization. A video he created, urging the municipal authority to block a road through a nature reserve during migration season, swung the decision the group's way. After a twelve months of lobbying, the council approved an "access-only" rule between evening and morning from late winter through to April. The majority of motorists respected and avoided the route.

Other Wildlife and Difficulties

Several cars go past when I'm out on patrol and we discover some casualties as a result – no amphibians, but several crushed salamanders. We see one live amphibian as well, and the teenager is particularly pleased to see a daddy longlegs, which dances in his hands. Yet in spite of the group's hardest attempts to let me see a toad, the local population has obviously settled down for the colder months. It appears that I wouldn't have had any better success anywhere else in the nation – all the patrol groups I contact clarify 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 made the effort 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 February and March, he tells me, the team expects to help approximately ten thousand adult toads across the road.

Effectiveness and Challenges

How much of a difference can these groups actually make? "The reality that people are doing this regularly on chilly, wet and miserable evenings is remarkable," notes an researcher. "That's something that very much deserves recognition." However, while rescue teams are able to slow the decline, they cannot prevent it entirely – not least because traffic is just one danger.

Additional Threats

The climate crisis has meant extended spells of drought, which create the wrong conditions for some of the creatures that toads eat, such as worms and slugs, while higher water temperatures have led to an increase of blue-green algae, which can be harmful to toads. Milder winters also lead toads to emerge from their dormancy more often, disrupting the energy conservation crucial to their life cycle. Loss of environment – especially the disappearance of big water bodies – is an additional threat.

Researchers are "always a bit worried about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on biodiversity," but "There is a big value in just their presence." But toads do have an important role in the food chain, consuming almost any invertebrates or small animals they can fit in their mouths and in turn feeding a variety of birds and mammals, such as hedgehogs and otters. Improving conditions for toads – ie building water habitats, protecting forests and constructing toad tunnels – "benefits for a wide range of additional wildlife."

Cultural Significance

An additional motive to try to keep toads present is their "historical significance," adds an specialist. Legends and tales around toads date back {centuries|hundred