🔗 Share this article

It is a Friday evening at half past seven, but rather than heading to the pub or watching a film, I've caught a train to a market town in Wiltshire to meet up with volunteers from a amphibian rescue group. These committed people sacrifice their evenings to safeguard the native amphibian community.

An Alarming Decline in Numbers

The Bufo bufo is growing more uncommon. A recent study conducted by an amphibian and reptile charity revealed that the British common toad numbers have almost halved since 1985. Seeing a creature that has been a fixture of the UK landscape in decline is labeled "concerning" by researchers. Toads "don't need very particular environments" and "ought to live quite well in most of habitats in the UK," meaning if even they are not managing to survive, "it kind of suggests that the ecosystem is unbalanced."

The UK toad population has almost halved since 1985

The Threat from Roads

Though the study didn't examine the causes for the drop, traffic certainly plays a part. Estimates indicate that 20 tonnes of toads are crushed on British roads every year – that is, several hundred thousand. Unlike frogs, which would probably be content to mate "with just a small container," toads favor large ponds. Their capacity to stay out of water for longer than frogs means they can travel further to reach them – sometimes long distances. They usually follow their ancestral migration routes – it's common for mature amphibians to return to their birth pond to mate.

Migration Patterns

Appropriately enough, the first toads begin their quest for a partner around Valentine's day, but others travel as far as April, until it gets dark 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 was raised in the region and has been working to save its amphibians since he was a child, notes that "Their sole purpose: to go and have an orgy." If their path crosses a street, they could be killed by traffic, and that mating period would be lost – stopping a next generation of toads from being produced.

Rescue Groups Across the United Kingdom

Finding hundreds of dead toads on nearby streets "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has led to the formation of toad patrols throughout the UK – 274 groups are officially listed with a countrywide program. These groups pick up toads and carry them over streets in buckets, as well as recording the number of toads they encounter and lobbying for other safety solutions, such as blocked roads and underground wildlife tunnels.

Patrols tend to operate during the migration season, when toad crossings are more regular. However, this means they can overlook numbers of young toads, which, having existed as eggs and then juveniles, exit their ponds over an unpredictable schedule in late summer. Because of their size – just a couple of cm wide – "they can get obliterated by vehicles." And as being hit "essentially crushes them," it's harder to get data on them. At least when adult toads are killed, their remains can be counted.

Year-Round Work

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 warm and wet, or if a member 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" – toad hibernation season has started and it's been a arid period – but several of the volunteers willingly accept to patrol their route with me and search for any toads. "Should anyone can find any toads tonight, that pair will find one," says the group coordinator, indicating her teenage child 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 family duo joined the patrol a year and a half ago. The youngster loves all things nature-related and has an goal to become a conservationist, so his parent started to search for activities they could do together to protect native animals. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the middle-aged entrepreneur tells me – so when the team was seeking a new manager lately, she decided to step up.

The youth, too, has been instrumental in the organization. A video he created, imploring the municipal authority to close a street through a protected area during migration season, swung the decision the team's way. After a year of lobbying, the authority agreed to an "restricted access" rule between evening and morning from late winter through to spring. 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 casualties as a consequence – no amphibians, but three squashed newts. We see one live amphibian as well, and the youngster is particularly pleased to see a daddy longlegs, which dances in his palms. Yet despite the group's best efforts to show me a toad, the local population has clearly settled down for the colder months. It seems that I couldn't have found any more luck elsewhere in the country – all the patrol groups I contact clarify that it's near-impossible at this time of year.

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

A message I receive from another volunteer, who has generously taken the trouble to check for toads in a famous site, thought to be the largest accurately monitored toad group in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the title: "No toads." However, in late winter, he tells me, the team expects to help approximately ten thousand adult toads over the street.

Impact and Limitations

How much of a difference can these organizations truly achieve? "The reality that volunteers are doing this regularly on chilly, wet and miserable evenings is remarkable," says 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 not the only threat.

Additional Threats

The global warming has meant longer periods of dry weather, which create the wrong conditions for some of the animals that toads eat, such as worms and slugs, while higher water temperatures have caused an rise of blue-green algae, which can be harmful to toads. Milder winters also cause toads to wake up from their dormancy more often, interfering with the resource preservation vital to their existence. Loss of environment – especially the disappearance of big water bodies – is another menace.

Researchers are "often concerned about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on wildlife," however "It's important in just their presence." But toads play an significant part in the ecosystem, eating almost any small creatures or tiny organisms they can swallow and in turn feeding a number of predators, such as hedgehogs and otters. Enhancing situations for toads – such as building water habitats, conserving woodland and constructing amphibian passages – "we'll improve them for a whole bunch of other species."

Historical Importance

Another reason to work to preserve toads around is their "historical significance," adds an expert. Myths and folklore around toads date back {centuries|hundred