🔗 Share this article

It is a Friday night at half past seven, but instead of heading to the pub or watching a film, I've taken a train to a market town in Wiltshire to meet up with local helpers from a toad patrol. These committed people sacrifice their nights to protect the local toad population.

A Worrying Decline in Numbers

The common toad is becoming increasingly uncommon. A recent study conducted by an amphibian and reptile charity revealed that the UK toad population have almost halved since 1985. Seeing a species that has been a stalwart of the UK landscape in decrease is labeled "worrying" by researchers. Toads "don't need very specific conditions" and "should be able to live quite well in most of areas in the UK," meaning if even they are struggling to persist, "it kind of suggests that things are not as they should be."

The UK toad population has almost halved since 1985

The Danger from Roads

Though the study didn't cover the reasons for the decline, traffic certainly plays a part. Estimates indicate that 20 tons of toads are crushed on British roads annually – in other words, several hundred thousand. In contrast to frogs, which would probably be happy to mate "with just a small container," toads prefer big bodies of water. Their ability to stay out of water for more time than frogs means they can journey farther to reach them – sometimes hundreds of metres. They tend to stick to their traditional paths – it's common for adult toads to go back to their birth pond to mate.

Migration Habits

Fittingly, the first toads start their journey for a mate around February 14th, but others travel as late as April, until it gets dark and travelling through the night. During that time, toads begin migrating from where they have been hibernating "all pretty much at the same time."

A local helper, who was raised in the region and has been working to save its amphibians since he was a boy, notes that "Their sole purpose: to go and mate." If their path happens to a road, they could be killed by traffic, and that breeding season would never happen – preventing a new generation of toads from being born.

Toad Patrols Across the United Kingdom

Seeing many of dead toads on nearby streets "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has resulted in the formation of rescue teams across the UK – hundreds of organizations are officially listed with a national initiative. These teams collect toads and carry them over streets in containers, as well as recording the number of toads they encounter and advocating for other safety solutions, such as blocked roads and underground wildlife tunnels.

Patrols usually work during the breeding period, when toad crossings are frequent. However, this implies they can overlook numbers of toadlets, which, having been spawn and then tadpoles, leave their water habitats over an irregular timetable in late summer. Because of their small stature – just a couple of cm wide – "they are destroyed by vehicles." And as being run over "basically turns them into mush," it's more difficult to collect information on them. At least when adult toads are killed, their carcasses can be counted.

Annual Efforts

In contrast to most patrols, a specific volunteer group, 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 posted about a toad sighting in their group chat. When I ask to join them on patrol, they concede it is "not ideal conditions" – winter dormancy has started and it's been a dry day – but several of the helpers willingly accept to patrol their area with me and search for any toads. "If anyone can find any toads tonight, that pair will find one," says the group coordinator, indicating her teenage child and the experienced member. We've been out for 120 minutes without a single toad sighting, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to inspect beneath some wood.

Family Participation

The family duo became part of the group a while back. The youngster loves all things nature-related and has an goal to become a environmentalist, so his mother started to search for things they could do jointly to protect local wildlife. Now she loves it as much as he does, the 41-year-old entrepreneur tells me – so when the team was looking for a new manager recently, she decided to step up.

The teenager, too, has played an important role in the group. A clip he made, imploring the municipal authority to close a street through a nature reserve during breeding time, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a twelve months of campaigning, the council approved an "access-only" restriction between 5pm and 5am from February through to April. Most drivers respected and avoided the road.

Additional Species and Difficulties

Several vehicles go by when I'm out on patrol and we discover some victims as a consequence – no amphibians, but three squashed newts. We see one living newt as well, and the teenager is especially excited to see a daddy longlegs, which moves in his palms. Yet despite the group's best efforts to let me see a toad, the local population has clearly gone dormant for the colder months. It appears that I couldn't have found any more luck anywhere else in the nation – all the rescue teams 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 get from another volunteer, who has generously taken the trouble to check for toads in a famous site, considered the biggest tracked toad population in the UK, reaches me with the subject line: "None found." However, in late winter, he tells me, the team expects to help approximately ten thousand mature amphibians over the street.

Impact and Challenges

What level of impact can these organizations truly achieve? "The fact that people are performing this consistently on chilly, wet and miserable evenings is remarkable," notes an researcher. "This effort that very much should be celebrated." However, while rescue teams are able to reduce the drop, they cannot prevent it entirely – not least because traffic is not the only threat.

Additional Threats

The global warming has resulted in longer periods of dry weather, which create the poor environment for some of the creatures that toads eat, such as invertebrates, while warmer ponds have caused an increase of toxic plants, which can be toxic to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to emerge from their dormancy more often, interfering with the energy conservation vital to their life cycle. Habitat destruction – particularly the disappearance of large ponds – is an additional threat.

Experts are "often concerned about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on wildlife," however "It's important in just having these animals around." But toads play an important role in the food chain, eating almost any small creatures or small animals they can fit in their mouths and in turn feeding a number of predators, such as hedgehogs and otters. Enhancing conditions for toads – such as creating more ponds, protecting forests and installing amphibian passages – "we'll improve them for a whole bunch of other species."

Cultural Importance

An additional motive to work to preserve toads present is their "historical significance," adds an expert. Myths and folklore around toads go back {centuries|hundred