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It's a Friday evening at half past seven, but instead of heading to the pub or watching a film, I've caught a train to a town in the countryside to meet up with local helpers from a toad patrol. These dedicated individuals give up their evenings to safeguard the native amphibian community.

An Alarming Drop in Population

The common toad is becoming increasingly rare. A recent research led by an wildlife conservation group showed 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 labeled "concerning" by experts. Toads "don't need very specific conditions" and "should be able to live quite well in the majority of habitats in the UK," meaning if even they are not managing to survive, "it indicates that things are not as they should be."

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

The Threat from Roads

Though the study didn't examine the reasons for the decline, cars certainly plays a part. Calculations suggest that 20 tonnes of toads are crushed on UK roads annually – in other words, hundreds of thousands. Unlike frogs, which would probably be content to mate "with just a small container," toads favor large ponds. Their capacity to stay out of water for longer than frogs means they can journey farther to reach them – sometimes long distances. They usually stick to their ancestral migration routes – it's typical for mature amphibians to go back to their birth pond to mate.

Breeding Patterns

Appropriately enough, the initial amphibians start their journey for a partner around February 14th, but some move as far as April, until it gets night and moving through the night. During that period, toads start moving from where they have been hibernating "almost simultaneously."

One volunteer, who was raised in the region and has been working to save its amphibians since he was a boy, notes that "They've got just one focus: to go and have an orgy." If their path happens to a road, they could be killed by traffic, and that mating period would never happen – stopping a next generation of toads from being born.

Toad Patrols Throughout the United Kingdom

Finding hundreds of dead toads on nearby streets "resonates deeply with people," and has resulted in the formation of rescue teams throughout the UK – 274 groups are currently registered with a countrywide program. These groups pick up toads and carry them across roads in containers, as well as counting the number of toads they find and lobbying for other protection measures, such as road closures and underground wildlife tunnels.

Volunteers tend to operate during the breeding period, when toad crossings are more regular. However, this means they can overlook numbers of young toads, which, having existed as spawn and then juveniles, leave their ponds over an irregular timetable in late summer. Because of their small stature – just a couple of cm wide – "they can get obliterated by car traffic." And as being run over "essentially crushes them," it's more difficult to get data on them. At least when mature amphibians are lost, their carcasses can be tallied.

Annual Work

Unlike many groups, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth year of operating, go out throughout the year – not nightly, but whenever weather are warm and wet, or if a member has reported about a amphibian spotting in their messaging app. When I request to accompany them on patrol, they admit it is "not a toady night" – toad hibernation season has begun and it's been a dry day – but a few of the volunteers willingly accept to walk up and down their route with me and search for any toads. "If anyone can locate any toads tonight, those two will find one," says the patrol manager, indicating her teenage child and the experienced member. After for 120 minutes without a single toad sighting, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to inspect beneath some wood.

Community Involvement

The family duo joined the group a while back. The teenager adores all things nature-related and has an ambition to become a conservationist, so his mother started to look 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 explains – so when the group was looking for 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 municipal authority to block a street through a nature reserve during breeding time, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a year of lobbying, the council approved an "restricted access" restriction between evening and morning from late winter through to April. Most drivers respected and avoided the road.

Additional Species and Difficulties

Several cars go by when I'm out on patrol and we discover some casualties as a consequence – no toads, but several crushed salamanders. We see one live amphibian as well, and the teenager is particularly pleased to see a daddy longlegs, which dances in his hands. Yet in spite of the team's hardest attempts to show me a toad, the local population has obviously gone dormant for the colder months. It seems that I couldn't have found any more luck anywhere else in the country – all the rescue teams I contact clarify that it's very difficult at this time of year.

This team anticipates assisting around ten thousand mature toads over the street

One email I receive from another volunteer, who has kindly made the effort to check for toads in a noted location, thought to be the biggest tracked toad group in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the title: "None found." However, in late winter, he tells me, the group plans to assist around ten thousand adult toads over the street.

Impact and Limitations

What level of impact can these groups truly achieve? "The reality that volunteers are performing this regularly on cold, damp and unpleasant evenings is quite extraordinary," notes an researcher. "This effort that very much deserves recognition." However, while toad patrols are able to slow the decline, they cannot prevent it entirely – partly since traffic is not the only threat.

Other Dangers

The global warming has meant extended spells of dry weather, which create the poor environment for some of the creatures that toads eat, such as invertebrates, while higher water temperatures have led to an increase of toxic plants, which can be toxic to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to emerge from their hibernation more frequently, interfering with the resource preservation crucial to their life cycle. Loss of environment – especially the disappearance of large ponds – is another menace.

Experts are "always a bit worried about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on biodiversity," however "There is a big value in just their presence." But toads do have an significant part in the ecosystem, consuming pretty much any small creatures or tiny organisms they can swallow and in turn sustaining a variety of predators, such as hedgehogs and otters. Improving situations for toads – such as building water habitats, conserving woodland and installing toad tunnels – "benefits for a wide range of other species."

Historical Importance

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