🔗 Share this article

It's a Friday evening at 7:30, but instead of going out or relaxing at home, I've taken a train to a market town in the countryside to meet up with volunteers from a toad patrol. These committed people give up their evenings to safeguard the local toad population.

An Alarming Drop in Population

The common toad is growing more rare. A recent research conducted by an amphibian and reptile charity revealed that the British common toad numbers have almost halved since the mid-1980s. Observing a creature that has been a fixture of the UK landscape in decrease is described as "concerning" by experts. Toads "don't require very specific conditions" and "ought to live quite well in the majority of habitats in the UK," so if even they are struggling to persist, "it indicates that things are not as they should be."

Since 1985, Britain's toad numbers have nearly been cut in half

The Danger from Traffic

Though the research didn't cover the causes for the decline, cars is a major factor. Estimates suggest that 20 tonnes of toads are crushed on UK roads every year – in other words, 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 allows they can travel further to reach them – often hundreds of metres. They usually follow their traditional paths – it's common for mature amphibians to return to their birth pond to mate.

Migration Patterns

Appropriately enough, the initial amphibians begin their quest for a partner around Valentine's day, but some move as far as spring, until it gets dark and travelling after sunset. During that period, toads begin migrating from wherever they have been hibernating "almost simultaneously."

A local helper, who was raised in the area and has been working to save its amphibians since he was a boy, explains that "Their sole purpose: to go and have an orgy." If their route happens to a street, they could be killed by traffic, and that breeding season would never happen – preventing a new generation of toads from being produced.

Rescue Groups Throughout the United Kingdom

Seeing many of dead toads on local roads "resonates deeply with people," and has resulted in the creation of rescue teams throughout the UK – 274 groups are officially listed with a countrywide program. These teams collect toads and carry them over streets in containers, as well as counting the quantity of toads they find and lobbying for other safety solutions, such as road closures and amphibian passages.

Volunteers tend to operate during the breeding period, when amphibian movements are frequent. However, this means they can overlook numbers of young toads, 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 "essentially crushes them," it's more difficult to get data on them. At least when mature amphibians are lost, their carcasses can be tallied.

Annual Efforts

In contrast to most patrols, one local team, who are in their eighth year of operating, go out year-round – not nightly, but whenever conditions are damp, or if someone has reported 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 begun and it's been a dry day – but a few of the helpers gamely agree to patrol their route with me and search for any toads. "Should anyone can locate any toads tonight, those two will find one," says the group coordinator, indicating her 14-year-old son and the longtime volunteer. We've been out for 120 minutes without a single toad sighting, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to check under some logs.

Community Participation

The mother and son joined the group a while back. The teenager loves all things nature-related and has an ambition to become a conservationist, so his mother started to search 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 team was seeking a fresh coordinator lately, she decided to step up.

The teenager, too, has been instrumental in the organization. A clip he created, urging the municipal authority to block a road through a nature reserve during migration season, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a year of lobbying, the authority approved an "access-only" restriction between evening and morning from February through to April. Most drivers respected and avoided the road.

Additional Species and Challenges

A few cars go by when I'm out on duty and we discover some victims as a consequence – no amphibians, but several crushed salamanders. We see one living newt as well, and the teenager is particularly pleased to see a harvestman, which dances in his hands. Yet in spite of the team'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 more luck anywhere else in the nation – all the patrol groups I reach out to explain that it's near-impossible at this time of year.

This team anticipates assisting around ten thousand mature toads over the street

One email I receive from another volunteer, who has kindly made the effort to check for toads in a famous site, thought to be the biggest tracked toad group 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 adult toads across the road.

Effectiveness and Limitations

How much of a difference can these groups truly achieve? "The fact that volunteers are doing this regularly on chilly, wet and miserable evenings is remarkable," notes an expert. "This effort that very much deserves recognition." However, while rescue teams are able to reduce the drop, they cannot prevent it entirely – not least because vehicles is just one danger.

Additional Threats

The climate crisis has resulted in longer periods of dry weather, which cause the wrong conditions for some of the animals that toads consume, such as invertebrates, while higher water temperatures have led to an increase of toxic plants, which can be harmful to toads. Warmer cold seasons also lead toads to wake up from their hibernation more frequently, interfering with the energy conservation vital to their existence. Loss of environment – especially the loss of large ponds – is another menace.

Experts are "often concerned about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on wildlife," but "It's important in just their presence." But toads play an significant part in the ecosystem, consuming pretty much any invertebrates or tiny organisms they can swallow and in turn feeding a variety of predators, such as hedgehogs and otters. Enhancing situations for toads – such as creating more ponds, conserving woodland and installing toad tunnels – "benefits for a wide range of additional wildlife."

Historical Significance

Another reason to work to preserve toads around is their "historical significance," notes an specialist. Myths and folklore around toads go back {centuries|hundred