🔗 Share this article

It is a Friday evening at half past seven, but rather than heading to the pub or relaxing at home, I've taken a train to a market town in Wiltshire to meet up with volunteers from a toad patrol. These dedicated individuals sacrifice their nights to protect the native amphibian community.

An Alarming Decline in Numbers

The common toad is becoming increasingly uncommon. A recent study led by an wildlife conservation group revealed that the British common toad numbers have dropped by half since 1985. Observing a creature that has been a stalwart of the British countryside in decrease is labeled "worrying" by experts. Toads "don't need very particular environments" and "should be able to live successfully in most of habitats in the UK," meaning if even they are not managing to survive, "it indicates that the ecosystem is unbalanced."

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

The Danger from Roads

Though the research didn't examine the reasons for the drop, cars is a major factor. Calculations indicate that 20 tons of toads are killed on UK roads annually – that is, hundreds of thousands. In contrast to 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 means they can travel further to reach them – sometimes hundreds of metres. They tend to follow their traditional paths – it's typical for mature amphibians to go back to their birth pond to mate.

Migration Habits

Fittingly, the first toads start their journey for a partner around Valentine's day, but others travel as far as April, waiting until it gets night and moving through the night. During that period, toads begin migrating from where they have been overwintering "all pretty much at the same time."

A local helper, who grew up in the region and has been working to save its toad population since he was a child, notes that "Their sole purpose: to go and mate." If their route crosses a road, they could be killed by traffic, and that mating period would never happen – stopping a new generation of toads from being produced.

Toad Patrols Across the United Kingdom

Seeing many of toad carcasses on local roads "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has resulted in the creation of rescue teams throughout the UK – 274 groups are currently registered with a countrywide program. These teams collect toads and transport them across roads in buckets, as well as counting 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 breeding period, when toad crossings are frequent. However, this implies they can overlook numbers of toadlets, which, having been eggs and then tadpoles, leave their ponds 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 "basically turns them into mush," it's more difficult to collect information on them. At least when adult toads are killed, their remains can be counted.

Annual Work

In contrast to many groups, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth year of functioning, go out year-round – not nightly, but when weather are damp, or if someone has posted about a amphibian spotting in their messaging app. When I request to accompany them on patrol, they concede it is "not a toady night" – toad hibernation season has begun and it's been a arid period – but several of the volunteers gamely agree to patrol 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 14-year-old son and the longtime volunteer. We've been out for two hours without a single toad sighting, and now they have climbed over a wire barrier to inspect beneath some logs.

Family Participation

The mother and son joined the group a year and a half ago. The youngster adores all things nature-related and has an ambition to become a conservationist, so his mother started to search for activities they could do jointly to help local wildlife. Now she loves it as much as he does, the middle-aged entrepreneur tells me – so when the group was looking for a new manager recently, she decided to step up.

The youth, too, has played an important role in the organization. A clip he made, urging the municipal authority to close a road through a nature reserve during migration season, influenced the outcome the group's way. After a twelve months of campaigning, the authority agreed to an "restricted access" rule between evening and morning from February through to April. The majority of motorists duly avoided the route.

Additional Species and Difficulties

A few cars go past when I'm out on duty and we discover some victims as a result – no toads, but three squashed newts. We see one living newt as well, and the youngster is particularly pleased to see a harvestman, which dances in his palms. Yet despite the group's best efforts to show me a toad, the native community has obviously settled down for the winter. 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 very difficult at this season.

They project rescuing nearly 10,000 grown amphibians during migration

A message I receive from another volunteer, who has kindly taken the trouble to check for toads in a famous site, considered the largest accurately monitored toad population in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the title: "None found." However, in late winter, he tells me, the team plans to assist around ten thousand mature amphibians over the street.

Effectiveness and Challenges

How much of a difference can these organizations truly achieve? "The fact that people are performing this regularly on chilly, wet and miserable evenings is remarkable," notes an expert. "That's something that very much should be celebrated." However, while rescue teams are able to slow the decline, they cannot prevent it entirely – partly since traffic is not the only threat.

Other Dangers

The global warming has meant extended spells of dry weather, which create the poor environment for some of the animals that toads eat, such as invertebrates, while warmer ponds have led to an rise of blue-green algae, which can be toxic to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to wake up from their dormancy more frequently, interfering with the resource preservation crucial to their existence. Habitat destruction – particularly the loss of large ponds – is another menace.

Experts are "often concerned 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 significant part in the ecosystem, eating pretty much any small creatures or tiny organisms they can fit in their mouths and in turn sustaining a variety of predators, such as wildlife. Enhancing situations for toads – ie building water habitats, protecting forests and installing toad tunnels – "benefits for a whole bunch of additional wildlife."

Cultural Significance

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