🔗 Share this article

It is Friday evening at 7:30, but instead of heading to the pub or watching a film, I've caught a train to a town in Wiltshire to meet up with volunteers from a amphibian rescue group. These committed people sacrifice their evenings to protect the native amphibian community.

A Worrying Decline in Population

The common toad is becoming increasingly rare. A latest study led by an wildlife conservation group revealed that the British common toad numbers have dropped by half since the mid-1980s. Seeing a creature that has been a fixture of the British countryside in decline is described as "concerning" by experts. Toads "don't require very particular environments" and "ought to live quite well in most of habitats in Britain," meaning if even they are struggling to persist, "it kind of suggests that the ecosystem is unbalanced."

The UK toad population has almost halved since 1985

The Threat from Traffic

Though the study didn't examine the causes for the drop, traffic certainly plays a part. Estimates indicate that 20 tons of toads are crushed on UK roads every year – in other words, several hundred thousand. In contrast to frogs, which would probably be happy to mate "if you left out a small container," toads favor big bodies of water. Their ability to stay out of water for more time than frogs means they can travel further to find them – often long distances. They tend to stick to their traditional paths – it's typical for adult toads to return to their birth pond to mate.

Breeding Patterns

Fittingly, the first toads start their journey for a mate around February 14th, but some move as far as April, waiting until it gets night and travelling after sunset. During that time, toads begin migrating from where they have been overwintering "all pretty much at the same time."

One volunteer, who grew up in the area and has been trying to protect its toad population since he was a child, notes that "They've got just one focus: to go and mate." If their route happens to a road, they could all get run over, and that mating period would never happen – stopping a next generation of toads from being born.

Rescue Groups Throughout the United Kingdom

Seeing hundreds of dead toads on nearby streets "resonates deeply with people," and has resulted in the creation of rescue teams across the UK – hundreds of organizations are currently registered with a national initiative. These teams collect toads and carry them across roads in buckets, as well as counting the number of toads they encounter and lobbying for other safety solutions, such as road closures and amphibian passages.

Volunteers usually work during the breeding period, when toad crossings are more regular. However, this means they can miss numbers of toadlets, which, having been spawn and then tadpoles, leave their water habitats over an unpredictable schedule in late summer. Because of their small stature – just one or two centimetres wide – "they can get obliterated by vehicles." And as being hit "essentially crushes them," it's harder to collect information on them. At least when mature amphibians are lost, their carcasses can be counted.

Year-Round Efforts

Unlike most patrols, one local team, who are in their eighth season of operating, go out year-round – not every night, but when conditions are warm and wet, or if a member has reported about a amphibian spotting in their group chat. When I request to accompany them on duty, they admit it is "not ideal conditions" – winter dormancy has started and it's been a arid period – but a few of the volunteers gamely agree to patrol their route with me and search for any toads. "Should anyone can locate any toads tonight, that pair will find one," says the group coordinator, indicating her 14-year-old son and the experienced member. 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 wood.

Community Involvement

The family duo became part of the patrol a year and a half ago. The teenager loves all things wildlife and has an goal to become a conservationist, so his mother started to look for things they could do together to protect native animals. Now she loves it as much as he does, the middle-aged 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 close a street through a protected area during breeding time, swung the decision the group's way. After a twelve months of campaigning, the authority approved an "access-only" restriction between 5pm and 5am from late winter through to spring. Most drivers respected and avoided the route.

Other Wildlife and Challenges

Several cars go by when I'm out on duty and we find some casualties 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 daddy longlegs, which dances in his palms. Yet in spite of the group's hardest attempts to let me see a toad, the native community has obviously gone dormant for the colder months. It seems that I couldn't have found any more luck elsewhere in the nation – all the patrol groups I contact explain that it's near-impossible at this season.

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 title: "No toads." However, in late winter, he tells me, the team plans to assist around 10,000 mature amphibians across the road.

Impact and Limitations

What level of impact can these organizations truly achieve? "The fact that people are performing this regularly on chilly, wet and miserable late nights is remarkable," says an researcher. "This effort that very much deserves recognition." However, while toad patrols are able to slow the decline, they can't stop it completely – partly since traffic is just one danger.

Other Dangers

The climate crisis has resulted in extended spells of drought, which cause the wrong conditions for some of the animals that toads consume, such as worms and slugs, while warmer ponds have led to an rise of toxic plants, which can be harmful to toads. Milder winters also lead toads to emerge from their hibernation more frequently, interfering with the resource preservation vital to their life cycle. Habitat destruction – particularly the loss of large ponds – 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 having these animals around." But toads do have an important role in the ecosystem, eating almost any invertebrates or tiny organisms they can swallow and in turn sustaining a variety of predators, such as wildlife. Enhancing situations for toads – ie building water habitats, conserving woodland and constructing toad tunnels – "benefits for a whole bunch of additional wildlife."

Cultural Significance

Another reason to try to keep toads around is their "historical significance," adds an specialist. Legends and tales around toads go back {centuries|hundred