🔗 Share this article

It's Friday evening at half past seven, but instead of going out or relaxing at home, I've taken a train to a town in the countryside to meet up with volunteers from a toad patrol. These dedicated individuals give up their nights to protect the local toad population.

An Alarming Drop in Numbers

The Bufo bufo is becoming increasingly uncommon. A recent study led by an wildlife conservation group showed that the British common toad numbers have almost halved since the mid-1980s. Observing a species that has been a fixture of the UK landscape in decrease is labeled "concerning" by experts. Toads "don't require very particular environments" and "ought to live successfully 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."

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

The Threat from Traffic

Though the study didn't examine the causes for the drop, traffic certainly plays a part. Estimates indicate that 20 tons of toads are crushed on British roads annually – in other words, hundreds of thousands. Unlike frogs, which might be happy to mate "if you left out a bucket of water," toads favor large ponds. Their ability to stay out of water for longer than frogs means they can travel further to reach them – often hundreds of metres. They usually stick to their traditional paths – it's common for adult toads to go back to their birth pond to mate.

Migration Patterns

Fittingly, the initial amphibians begin their quest for a partner around February 14th, but others travel as late as April, until it gets night and moving through the night. During that time, toads begin migrating from wherever they have been hibernating "all pretty much at the same time."

One volunteer, who was raised in the area and has been trying to protect its toad population since he was a child, explains that "They've got just one focus: to go and have an orgy." If their route crosses a road, they could be killed by traffic, and that breeding season would never happen – stopping a next generation of toads from being produced.

Toad Patrols Across the United Kingdom

Finding hundreds of toad carcasses on nearby streets "resonates deeply with people," and has resulted in the creation of toad patrols throughout the UK – hundreds of organizations are officially listed with a national initiative. These groups collect toads and carry them over streets in buckets, as well as recording the quantity of toads they encounter and advocating for other safety solutions, such as road closures and underground wildlife tunnels.

Patrols tend to operate during the breeding period, when toad crossings are more regular. However, this means they can overlook numbers of toadlets, which, having existed as spawn and then juveniles, exit their water habitats over an unpredictable schedule in the end of summer. Because of their size – just a couple of cm wide – "they are destroyed by vehicles." And as being hit "basically turns them into mush," it's more difficult to get data on them. At least when mature amphibians are killed, their carcasses can be tallied.

Year-Round Work

Unlike most patrols, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth year of functioning, go out year-round – not every night, but whenever conditions are damp, or if someone has reported about a toad sighting in their messaging app. When I ask to join them on patrol, they concede it is "not ideal conditions" – toad hibernation season has begun and it's been a dry day – but a few of the volunteers willingly accept to patrol their area with me and see what we can find. "Should anyone can find any toads tonight, those two will spot one," says the group coordinator, pointing to her 14-year-old son and the experienced member. After for 120 minutes without a glimpse of any amphibians, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to inspect beneath some logs.

Community Involvement

The mother and son joined 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 activities they could do together to help 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 fresh coordinator lately, she decided to step up.

The youth, too, has been instrumental in the group. A video he created, imploring the local council to block a road through a protected area during migration season, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a twelve months of campaigning, the council agreed to an "access-only" restriction between evening and morning from late winter through to April. The majority of motorists duly avoided the road.

Additional Species and Difficulties

Several vehicles go by when I'm out on patrol and we discover some victims as a result – no toads, but several crushed salamanders. We see one live amphibian as well, and the youngster is especially excited to see a harvestman, which moves in his palms. Yet in spite of the group's hardest attempts to show me a toad, the native community has clearly gone dormant for the winter. It seems that I wouldn't have had any more luck elsewhere in the country – all the rescue teams I contact explain that it's very difficult at this time of year.

They project rescuing nearly 10,000 grown amphibians during migration

A message I get from a different helper, who has generously taken the trouble to look for toads in a famous site, thought to be the largest accurately monitored toad population in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the subject line: "No toads." However, in February and March, he tells me, the group expects to help approximately ten thousand mature amphibians across the road.

Impact and Challenges

What level of impact can these groups actually make? "The reality that volunteers are doing this regularly on chilly, wet and miserable late nights is quite extraordinary," says an expert. "This effort that very much deserves recognition." However, while rescue teams are able to slow the decline, they can't stop it completely – partly since vehicles is not the only threat.

Other Dangers

The climate crisis has resulted in extended spells of drought, which create the poor environment for some of the creatures that toads eat, such as worms and slugs, while warmer ponds have caused an increase of toxic plants, which can be harmful to toads. Milder winters also cause toads to wake up from their hibernation more often, interfering with the resource preservation crucial to their existence. Habitat destruction – particularly the disappearance of large ponds – 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 almost any invertebrates or tiny organisms they can fit in their mouths and in turn feeding a variety of birds and mammals, such as wildlife. Improving situations for toads – such as building water habitats, conserving woodland and installing amphibian passages – "benefits for a whole bunch of other species."

Cultural Importance

An additional motive to try to keep toads around is their "historical significance," notes an specialist. Legends and tales around toads date back {centuries|hundred