🔗 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 town in the countryside to meet up with local helpers from a toad patrol. These committed people give up their evenings to safeguard the local toad population.

A Worrying Decline in Numbers

The common toad is growing more uncommon. A latest research led by an amphibian and reptile charity showed that the British common toad numbers have dropped by half since 1985. Observing a species that has been a fixture of the British countryside in decrease is labeled "worrying" by experts. Toads "don't require very specific conditions" and "ought to live successfully in most 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 Threat from Traffic

Though the study didn't cover the reasons for the drop, traffic certainly plays a part. Estimates suggest that 20 tonnes of toads are crushed on UK roads annually – that is, hundreds of thousands. In contrast to frogs, which might be happy to mate "if you left out a small container," toads prefer big bodies of water. Their capacity to remain away from water for longer than frogs allows they can travel further to reach them – often hundreds of metres. They tend to follow their ancestral migration routes – it's common for adult toads to go back to their birth pond to mate.

Migration Patterns

Appropriately enough, the initial amphibians begin their quest for a mate around Valentine's day, but others travel as late as April, until it gets night and moving after sunset. During that period, toads begin migrating from where they have been hibernating "almost simultaneously."

A local helper, who grew up in the region and has been working to save its amphibians since he was a boy, 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 never happen – preventing a next generation of toads from being produced.

Toad Patrols Across the UK

Finding many of dead toads on nearby streets "resonates deeply with people," and has led to the formation of toad patrols throughout the UK – 274 groups are officially listed with a national initiative. These teams collect toads and carry them across roads in buckets, as well as counting the quantity of toads they encounter and lobbying for other safety solutions, such as road closures and amphibian passages.

Patrols usually work during the migration season, when amphibian movements are more regular. However, this implies they can overlook numbers of toadlets, which, having been eggs and then juveniles, leave their ponds over an irregular timetable in late summer. Because of their size – just one or two centimetres wide – "they are destroyed by car traffic." And as being run over "basically turns them into mush," it's harder to collect information on them. At least when adult toads are killed, their remains can be tallied.

Year-Round Work

Unlike many groups, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth season of operating, go out throughout the year – not every night, but when conditions are damp, or if someone has reported about a amphibian spotting in their group chat. When I request to accompany them on patrol, they admit it is "not ideal conditions" – winter dormancy has started 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. "Should anyone can locate any toads tonight, that pair will find one," says the group coordinator, indicating her teenage child and the longtime volunteer. After for two hours without a single toad sighting, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to check under some wood.

Family Involvement

The family duo became part of the group a while back. The youngster loves all things wildlife and has an ambition to become a environmentalist, so his parent started to look for things they could do jointly to help native animals. Now she loves it as much as he does, the middle-aged entrepreneur tells me – so when the team was looking for a new manager lately, she decided to step up.

The youth, too, has played an important role in the organization. A clip he created, urging the local council to block a street through a nature reserve during migration season, swung the decision the group's way. After a twelve months of campaigning, the council agreed to an "access-only" restriction between 5pm and 5am from late winter through to April. The majority of motorists respected and avoided the road.

Additional Species and Difficulties

A few vehicles go past when I'm out on duty and we find some victims as a consequence – no amphibians, but three squashed newts. We spot one living newt as well, and the youngster is especially excited to see a daddy longlegs, which moves in his hands. Yet despite the team's hardest attempts to let me see 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 country – all the rescue teams I reach out to clarify 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 get from another volunteer, who has generously taken the trouble to look for toads in a noted location, thought to be the largest accurately monitored toad group in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the subject line: "No toads." However, in late winter, he tells me, the team plans to assist approximately ten thousand mature amphibians over the street.

Impact and Limitations

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

Additional Threats

The climate crisis has meant longer periods of drought, which cause the wrong conditions for some of the creatures that toads eat, such as worms and slugs, while higher water temperatures have caused an rise of blue-green algae, which can be toxic to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to wake up from their hibernation more frequently, disrupting the resource preservation vital to their life cycle. Loss of environment – particularly the disappearance of big water bodies – is another menace.

Researchers are "always a bit worried about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on biodiversity," however "There is a big value in just their presence." But toads do have an important role in the ecosystem, eating pretty much any invertebrates or small animals they can swallow and in turn feeding a variety of birds and mammals, such as hedgehogs and otters. Improving situations for toads – such as creating more ponds, conserving woodland and installing amphibian passages – "benefits for a wide range of other species."

Historical Importance

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