🔗 Share this article

It is a Friday evening at 7:30, but rather than heading to the pub or watching a film, I've caught a train to a market town in the countryside to meet up with local helpers from a toad patrol. These committed people sacrifice their nights to protect the local toad population.

An Alarming Decline in Population

The Bufo bufo is becoming increasingly uncommon. A recent study led by an amphibian and reptile charity revealed that the British common toad numbers have almost halved since the mid-1980s. Observing a species that has been a stalwart of the British countryside in decrease is labeled "worrying" by researchers. Toads "don't need very particular environments" and "ought to live successfully in the majority of habitats in the UK," so if even they are struggling to persist, "it kind of suggests that the ecosystem is unbalanced."

Since 1985, Britain's toad numbers have nearly been cut in half

The Threat from Traffic

Though the research didn't examine the reasons for the decline, traffic certainly plays a part. Estimates indicate that 20 tonnes 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 "with just a small container," toads favor big bodies of water. Their ability to stay out of water for more time than frogs means they can journey farther to reach them – often hundreds of metres. They tend to stick to their ancestral migration routes – it's typical for mature amphibians to return to their natal pond to mate.

Migration Habits

Appropriately enough, the first toads begin their quest for a mate around February 14th, but others travel as late as April, waiting until it gets dark and moving after sunset. During that time, toads start moving from where they have been overwintering "all pretty much at the same time."

One volunteer, who grew up in the region and has been working to save its toad population since he was a child, notes that "Their sole purpose: to go and mate." If their path happens to a street, they could all get run over, and that breeding season would never happen – preventing a next generation of toads from being born.

Rescue Groups Across the United Kingdom

Seeing hundreds of toad carcasses on nearby streets "resonates deeply with people," and has led to the creation of toad patrols across the UK – hundreds of organizations are currently registered with a national initiative. These teams pick up toads and transport them across roads in containers, as well as recording the quantity of toads they encounter and lobbying for other safety solutions, such as road closures and underground wildlife tunnels.

Patrols usually work during the breeding period, when toad crossings are more regular. However, this means they can miss numbers of young toads, which, having existed as eggs and then tadpoles, exit their water habitats over an irregular timetable in the end of summer. Because of their size – just one or two centimetres wide – "they are destroyed by car traffic." And as being run over "essentially crushes them," 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 many groups, one local team, who are in their eighth season of functioning, go out year-round – not nightly, but whenever weather are damp, or if someone has reported about a toad sighting in their messaging app. When I request to accompany them on patrol, they concede it is "not a toady night" – winter dormancy has started and it's been a arid period – but several of the helpers willingly accept to walk up and down their area 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 14-year-old son and the experienced member. We've been out for 120 minutes without a single toad sighting, and now they have climbed over a barbed wire fence to check under some logs.

Community Involvement

The family duo became part of the patrol a year and a half ago. The youngster adores all things wildlife and has an goal to become a conservationist, so his mother started to search for activities they could do jointly to protect local wildlife. Now she loves it as much as he does, the 41-year-old small business owner tells me – so when the group was seeking a fresh coordinator lately, she decided to step up.

The youth, too, has played an important role in the organization. A video he made, imploring the local council to block a street through a nature reserve during breeding time, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a year of campaigning, the authority approved an "access-only" restriction between 5pm and 5am from late winter through to April. Most drivers respected and avoided the road.

Additional Species and Difficulties

Several vehicles go past when I'm out on duty and we discover some casualties as a consequence – no toads, 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 hands. Yet in spite of the group's best efforts to show me a toad, the local population has clearly gone dormant for the winter. It appears that I wouldn't have had any better success elsewhere in the country – all the rescue teams I contact explain that it's near-impossible at this season.

They project rescuing nearly 10,000 grown amphibians during migration

A message I get from another volunteer, who has generously made the effort to look for toads in a noted location, considered the biggest tracked toad population in the UK, reaches me with the subject line: "No toads." However, in February and March, he tells me, the group plans to assist around ten thousand mature amphibians across the road.

Effectiveness and Limitations

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," notes an expert. "This effort that very much should be celebrated." However, while rescue teams are able to slow the decline, they can't stop it completely – not least because traffic is just one danger.

Other Dangers

The climate crisis has resulted in extended spells of dry weather, which create the poor environment for some of the creatures that toads consume, such as invertebrates, while higher water temperatures have led to an rise of toxic plants, which can be harmful to toads. Warmer cold seasons also lead toads to emerge from their dormancy more often, interfering with the resource preservation vital to their existence. Loss of environment – especially the loss of large ponds – is another menace.

Experts are "always a bit worried about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on wildlife," however "It's important in just having these animals around." But toads do have an significant part in the food chain, eating almost any invertebrates or tiny organisms they can swallow and in turn sustaining a variety of birds and mammals, such as wildlife. Enhancing conditions for toads – ie building water habitats, conserving woodland and constructing toad tunnels – "benefits for a whole bunch of additional wildlife."

Cultural Significance

An additional motive to try to keep toads present is their "important cultural value," adds an specialist. Legends and tales around toads go back {centuries|hundred