🔗 Share this article

It's Friday night at half past seven, but rather than going out or relaxing at home, I've caught a train to a market town in the countryside to join volunteers from a toad patrol. These committed people give up their nights to safeguard the native amphibian community.

An Alarming Drop in Population

The common toad is growing more rare. A recent research led by an amphibian and reptile charity revealed that the UK toad population have dropped by half since 1985. Observing a species that has been a stalwart of the British countryside in decline is described as "worrying" by researchers. Toads "don't require very specific conditions" and "ought to live quite well in the majority of areas in the UK," so if even they are struggling to persist, "it kind of suggests that things are not as they should be."

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

The Threat from Roads

Though the study didn't examine the reasons for the decline, traffic certainly plays a part. Estimates suggest that 20 tons of toads are crushed on British roads every year – in other words, hundreds of thousands. In contrast to frogs, which would probably be content to mate "if you left out a bucket of water," toads favor big bodies of water. Their ability to remain away from water for more time than frogs allows they can journey farther to find them – often hundreds of metres. They usually follow their traditional paths – it's common for mature amphibians to return to their birth pond to mate.

Breeding Habits

Fittingly, the initial amphibians start their journey for a mate around February 14th, but some move as late as spring, waiting until it gets dark and travelling through the night. During that period, toads start moving from where they have been overwintering "almost simultaneously."

A local helper, who grew up in the area and has been working to save its toad population since he was a child, explains that "They've got just one focus: to go and mate." If their route crosses a road, they could all get run over, and that breeding season would be lost – preventing a next generation of toads from being produced.

Toad Patrols Throughout the United Kingdom

Finding hundreds of toad carcasses on local roads "resonates deeply with people," and has led to the creation of rescue teams across the UK – 274 groups are officially listed with a national initiative. These teams pick up toads and carry them across roads in buckets, as well as recording the number of toads they find and lobbying for other protection measures, such as blocked roads and underground wildlife tunnels.

Patrols usually work during the breeding period, when toad crossings are more regular. However, this means they can overlook groups of toadlets, which, having been spawn and then juveniles, exit their water habitats over an irregular timetable in late summer. Because of their small stature – just a couple of cm wide – "they can get obliterated by vehicles." And as being run over "basically turns them into mush," it's harder to get data on them. At least when mature amphibians are killed, their carcasses can be counted.

Year-Round Work

In contrast to most patrols, one local team, who are in their eighth season of operating, go out year-round – not every night, but when weather are damp, or if someone has reported about a amphibian spotting in their group chat. When I ask to join them on patrol, they concede it is "not a toady night" – toad hibernation season has begun and it's been a dry day – but a few of the helpers willingly accept to walk up and down their route with me and see what we can find. "If anyone can find any toads tonight, that pair will spot one," says the patrol manager, 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 logs.

Community Participation

The family duo became part of the group a year and a half ago. The teenager loves all things nature-related and has an goal to become a conservationist, so his parent started to look for activities they could do together to help 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 recently, she volunteered for the role.

The youth, too, has played an important role in the group. A clip he created, urging the local council to close a road through a protected area during breeding time, influenced the outcome the group's way. After a twelve months of lobbying, the authority agreed to an "restricted access" rule between 5pm and 5am from late winter through to April. Most drivers respected and avoided the route.

Additional Species and Challenges

A few cars go past when I'm out on patrol and we discover some victims as a result – no amphibians, but three squashed newts. We spot one live amphibian as well, and the teenager is particularly pleased to see a harvestman, which dances in his hands. Yet despite the team's hardest attempts to show me a toad, the local population has obviously settled down for the colder months. It appears that I couldn't have found any better success elsewhere in the country – all the patrol groups 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 kindly taken the trouble to check for toads in a noted location, thought to be the biggest tracked toad population in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the title: "No toads." However, in late winter, he informs me, the group plans to assist around 10,000 adult toads across the road.

Impact and Challenges

How much of a difference can these organizations truly achieve? "The fact that people are doing this consistently on cold, damp and unpleasant late nights is quite extraordinary," says an researcher. "That's something that very much deserves recognition." However, while rescue teams are able to reduce the drop, they cannot prevent it entirely – partly since vehicles is not the only threat.

Additional Threats

The climate crisis has resulted in longer periods of dry weather, which cause the wrong conditions for some of the creatures that toads eat, such as worms and slugs, while warmer ponds have led to an rise of toxic plants, which can be harmful to toads. Warmer cold seasons also lead toads to wake up from their hibernation more often, disrupting the energy conservation crucial to their life cycle. Loss of environment – especially the loss of big water bodies – is another menace.

Researchers are "often concerned about overemphasizing practical benefits on wildlife," but "It's important in just having these animals around." But toads do have an important role in the food chain, eating pretty much any invertebrates or tiny organisms they can swallow and in turn sustaining a variety of birds and mammals, such as wildlife. Improving situations for toads – such as building water habitats, conserving woodland and constructing toad tunnels – "benefits for a wide range of additional wildlife."

Cultural Importance

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