🔗 Share this article

It is Friday night at half past seven, but rather than heading to the pub or watching a film, I've taken a train to a town in Wiltshire to meet up with local helpers from a amphibian rescue group. These committed people give up their nights to safeguard the native amphibian community.

An Alarming Decline in Population

The Bufo bufo is becoming increasingly rare. A latest study led by an amphibian and reptile charity revealed that the British common toad numbers have almost halved since the mid-1980s. Seeing a creature that has been a stalwart of the UK landscape in decrease is labeled "worrying" by experts. Toads "don't require 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 things are not as they should be."

The UK toad population has almost halved since 1985

The Danger from Traffic

Though the research didn't examine the causes for the decline, cars certainly plays a part. Calculations suggest that 20 tonnes of toads are crushed on UK roads every year – that is, hundreds of thousands. Unlike frogs, which might be happy to mate "if you left out a bucket of water," toads prefer big bodies of water. Their ability to stay out of water for longer than frogs allows they can journey farther to find them – often hundreds of metres. They usually stick to their ancestral migration routes – it's common for mature amphibians to go back to their natal pond to mate.

Breeding Habits

Fittingly, the first toads start their journey for a partner around February 14th, but others travel as late as April, until it gets night and travelling after sunset. During that time, toads start moving from wherever they have been hibernating "almost simultaneously."

A local helper, who was raised in the area and has been working to save its amphibians since he was a child, explains that "Their sole purpose: to go and have an orgy." If their path happens to a road, they could all get run over, and that mating period would never happen – preventing a new generation of toads from being produced.

Toad Patrols Across the United Kingdom

Finding hundreds of dead toads on nearby streets "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has resulted in the creation of rescue teams across the UK – hundreds of organizations are currently registered with a national initiative. These groups collect toads and transport them across roads in containers, as well as counting the quantity 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 amphibian movements are frequent. However, this implies they can overlook numbers of young toads, which, having existed as eggs and then juveniles, exit their water habitats over an irregular timetable in the end of summer. Because of their small stature – just one or two centimetres wide – "they are destroyed by vehicles." And as being run over "essentially crushes them," it's more difficult to collect information on them. At least when mature amphibians are lost, their carcasses can be counted.

Annual Work

Unlike most patrols, one local team, who are in their eighth season of functioning, go out throughout the year – not nightly, 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 admit it is "not ideal conditions" – toad hibernation season has begun and it's been a dry day – but a few of the volunteers gamely agree to walk up and down their area with me and see what we can find. "Should anyone can find any toads tonight, those two will find one," says the group coordinator, pointing to her 14-year-old son and the longtime volunteer. We've been out for two hours without a glimpse of any amphibians, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to check under some logs.

Family Participation

The mother and son joined the group a while back. The teenager loves all things nature-related and has an ambition to become a conservationist, so his mother started to search for activities they could do together to help local wildlife. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the middle-aged entrepreneur explains – so when the group was looking for a new manager lately, she volunteered for the role.

The youth, too, has been instrumental in the group. A clip he made, imploring the municipal authority to close a street through a protected area during breeding time, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a year of lobbying, the council approved an "restricted access" rule between evening and morning from late winter through to spring. Most drivers respected and avoided the road.

Additional Species and Difficulties

Several vehicles go past when I'm out on patrol and we discover some casualties as a consequence – no amphibians, but several crushed salamanders. We spot one live amphibian as well, and the teenager is especially excited to see a harvestman, which dances in his hands. Yet in spite of the team's hardest attempts to let me see a toad, the native community has obviously settled down 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 near-impossible at this time of year.

They project rescuing nearly 10,000 grown amphibians during migration

One email I receive 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 subject line: "No toads." However, in February and March, he informs me, the group plans to assist approximately 10,000 adult toads across the road.

Impact and Challenges

How much of a difference can these groups actually make? "The reality that people are performing this regularly on cold, damp and unpleasant evenings is quite extraordinary," says an researcher. "This effort that very much deserves recognition." However, while rescue teams are able to reduce the drop, 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 drought, which create the poor environment for some of the animals that toads eat, such as worms and slugs, while warmer ponds have led to an increase of toxic plants, which can be toxic to toads. Milder winters also lead toads to wake up from their dormancy more frequently, interfering with the resource preservation crucial to their life cycle. Habitat destruction – especially the disappearance of large ponds – is another menace.

Experts are "often concerned about overemphasizing practical benefits on wildlife," but "There is a big value in just their presence." But toads do have an important role in the ecosystem, consuming almost any small creatures or small animals they can fit in their mouths and in turn feeding a number of predators, such as wildlife. Enhancing conditions for toads – ie building water habitats, protecting forests and installing amphibian passages – "benefits for a wide range of additional wildlife."

Cultural Significance

An additional motive to work to preserve toads around is their "important cultural value," notes an specialist. Myths and folklore around toads go back {centuries|hundred