🔗 Share this article

It is Friday evening at half past seven, but instead of heading to the pub or watching a film, I've caught a train to a market town in Wiltshire to join volunteers from a toad patrol. These committed people give up their nights to safeguard the local toad population.

An Alarming Decline in Numbers

The Bufo bufo is growing more rare. A latest study led by an amphibian and reptile charity showed that the UK toad population have dropped by half since 1985. Observing a species that has been a stalwart of the UK landscape in decrease is labeled "worrying" by experts. Toads "don't need very specific conditions" and "ought to live successfully in most of habitats in Britain," meaning if even they are not managing to survive, "it indicates that things are not as they should be."

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

The Threat from Traffic

Though the study didn't examine the reasons for the decline, traffic is a major factor. Estimates indicate that 20 tons of toads are killed on UK roads annually – in other words, hundreds of thousands. In contrast to frogs, which might be content to mate "with just a bucket of water," toads favor large ponds. Their capacity to stay out of water for more time than frogs allows they can travel further to reach them – often hundreds of metres. They usually stick to their ancestral migration routes – it's typical for mature amphibians to return to their birth pond to mate.

Migration Habits

Appropriately enough, the initial amphibians start their journey for a mate around February 14th, but others travel as late as April, waiting until it gets night and travelling through the night. During that period, toads start moving from wherever they have been hibernating "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 have an orgy." If their path crosses a road, they could all get run over, and that mating period would be lost – stopping a new generation of toads from being born.

Rescue Groups Across the United Kingdom

Seeing many of dead toads on local roads "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has resulted in the formation of toad patrols throughout the UK – 274 groups are currently registered with a national initiative. These teams collect toads and transport them across roads in containers, as well as recording the number of toads they find and lobbying for other safety solutions, such as road closures and amphibian passages.

Patrols tend to operate during the migration season, when toad crossings are frequent. However, this means they can miss numbers of young toads, which, having been eggs and then juveniles, exit their water habitats over an unpredictable schedule in late summer. Because of their small stature – 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 adult toads are lost, their remains can be counted.

Annual Efforts

Unlike most patrols, one local team, who are in their eighth season of operating, go out year-round – not nightly, but whenever weather are warm and wet, or if someone has posted about a toad sighting in their group chat. When I request to accompany them on patrol, they admit it is "not a toady night" – winter dormancy has started and it's been a arid period – but several of the helpers gamely agree to patrol their route with me and search for any toads. "If anyone can find any toads tonight, that pair will spot one," says the patrol manager, pointing to her teenage child and the experienced member. We've been out for two hours without a single toad sighting, and now they have scaled a wire barrier to inspect beneath some wood.

Family Participation

The mother and son joined the patrol a while back. The youngster adores all things wildlife and has an ambition to become a environmentalist, so his mother started to look for things they could do together to help native animals. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the 41-year-old small business owner explains – so when the group was looking for a new manager recently, she volunteered for the role.

The youth, too, has played an important role in the group. A video he made, urging the local council to close a street through a nature reserve during migration season, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a year of campaigning, the council approved an "restricted access" rule between 5pm and 5am from February through to spring. Most drivers duly avoided the route.

Additional Species and Challenges

Several 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 live amphibian as well, and the youngster is particularly pleased to see a daddy longlegs, which moves in his hands. Yet despite the group's best efforts to let me see a toad, the native community has clearly gone dormant for the winter. It seems that I couldn't have found any more luck elsewhere in the nation – all the rescue teams I contact clarify that it's very difficult at this season.

The group expects to help approximately 10,000 adult toads across the road

A message I receive from a different helper, who has kindly made the effort to check for toads in a famous site, considered the biggest tracked toad population in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the title: "None found." However, in late winter, he tells me, the group plans to assist around 10,000 adult toads over the street.

Impact and Challenges

What level of impact can these groups truly achieve? "The reality that volunteers are performing this consistently on cold, damp and unpleasant evenings is remarkable," notes an researcher. "That's something that very much deserves recognition." However, while toad patrols are able to reduce the drop, they can't stop it completely – partly since traffic is not the only threat.

Other Dangers

The climate crisis has resulted in extended spells of dry weather, which cause the wrong conditions for some of the animals that toads eat, such as worms and slugs, while higher water temperatures have led to an rise of blue-green algae, which can be toxic to toads. Milder winters also cause toads to wake up from their hibernation more frequently, disrupting the resource preservation crucial to their life cycle. Habitat destruction – particularly the loss of large ponds – is another menace.

Experts are "often concerned about overemphasizing practical benefits on biodiversity," however "It's important in just their presence." But toads do have an important role in the ecosystem, eating almost any small creatures or tiny organisms they can fit in their mouths and in turn feeding a number of birds and mammals, such as wildlife. Improving situations for toads – such as building water habitats, conserving woodland and installing toad tunnels – "we'll improve them for a wide range of other species."

Cultural Importance

An additional motive to try to keep toads around is their "important cultural value," notes an expert. Myths and folklore around toads date back {centuries|hundred