🔗 Share this article

It is a Friday night at half past seven, but rather than going out or watching a film, I've taken a train to a market town in the countryside to meet up with volunteers from a amphibian rescue group. These dedicated individuals sacrifice their nights to safeguard the native amphibian community.

A Worrying Decline in Population

The common toad is becoming increasingly rare. A latest study led by an wildlife conservation group revealed that the UK toad population have dropped by half since the mid-1980s. Seeing a creature that has been a fixture of the British countryside in decline is labeled "worrying" by experts. Toads "don't need very specific conditions" and "ought to live quite well in most of habitats in Britain," meaning if even they are struggling to persist, "it indicates that the ecosystem is unbalanced."

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

The Threat from Roads

Though the research didn't examine the reasons for the drop, traffic certainly plays a part. Calculations indicate that 20 tons of toads are killed on British roads every year – that is, hundreds of thousands. In contrast to frogs, which would probably be content to mate "if you left out a small container," toads prefer big bodies of water. Their ability to remain away from water for more time than frogs means they can travel further to reach them – sometimes long distances. They tend to follow their traditional paths – it's common for adult toads to return to their birth pond to mate.

Migration Habits

Fittingly, the first toads start their journey for a mate around Valentine's day, but some move as late as April, waiting until it gets night and moving through the night. During that period, toads start moving from wherever they have been hibernating "almost simultaneously."

One volunteer, who grew up in the region and has been trying to protect its toad population since he was a boy, explains that "Their sole purpose: to go and mate." If their path crosses a street, they could be killed by traffic, and that mating period would never happen – preventing a new generation of toads from being produced.

Rescue Groups Across the UK

Seeing hundreds of dead toads on local roads "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has resulted in the formation of toad patrols throughout the UK – 274 groups are officially listed with a countrywide program. These teams collect 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 blocked roads and amphibian passages.

Patrols usually work during the breeding period, when toad crossings are frequent. However, this means they can overlook groups of toadlets, which, having been eggs and then tadpoles, exit their ponds over an unpredictable schedule in late summer. Because of their small stature – just one or two centimetres wide – "they are destroyed by car traffic." And as being hit "basically turns them into mush," it's harder to get data on them. At least when mature amphibians are killed, their remains can be tallied.

Annual Work

Unlike most patrols, one local team, who are in their eighth year of operating, go out throughout the year – not every night, but when conditions are damp, or if a member has reported about a amphibian spotting in their messaging app. When I request to accompany them on duty, they concede it is "not ideal conditions" – winter dormancy has begun and it's been a arid period – but a few of the helpers willingly accept to patrol 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 experienced member. We've been out for 120 minutes without a glimpse of any amphibians, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to check under some logs.

Community Participation

The family duo became part of the group a year and a half ago. The youngster adores all things wildlife and has an ambition to become a environmentalist, so his mother started to search for things they could do together to help 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 new manager recently, she volunteered for the role.

The teenager, too, has been instrumental in the group. A clip he made, imploring the municipal authority to block a road through a protected area during migration season, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a year of lobbying, the council approved an "restricted access" restriction between 5pm and 5am from February through to April. The majority of motorists duly avoided the road.

Other Wildlife and Difficulties

Several cars go past when I'm out on duty and we discover some victims as a consequence – no toads, but three squashed newts. We see one living newt as well, and the teenager is especially excited to see a harvestman, which moves in his palms. Yet in spite of the team's hardest attempts to show me a toad, the local population has clearly settled down for the winter. It seems that I couldn't have found any better success elsewhere in the nation – all the patrol groups I reach out to explain that it's very difficult at this season.

The group expects to help approximately 10,000 adult toads across the road

One email I receive from another volunteer, who has generously made the effort to check for toads in a famous site, thought to be the biggest tracked toad group in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the subject line: "None found." However, in February and March, he informs me, the team expects to help approximately 10,000 mature amphibians across the road.

Impact and Challenges

How much of a difference can these groups actually make? "The reality that volunteers are performing this consistently on cold, damp and unpleasant evenings is quite extraordinary," says an expert. "This effort that very much should be celebrated." However, while rescue teams are able to slow the decline, they cannot prevent it entirely – partly since vehicles is not the only threat.

Other Dangers

The global warming has resulted in longer periods of drought, which create the wrong conditions for some of the animals that toads consume, such as worms and slugs, while higher water temperatures have led to an increase of blue-green algae, which can be harmful to toads. Milder winters 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 an additional threat.

Researchers are "often concerned about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on wildlife," however "It's important in just their presence." But toads play an important role in the food chain, consuming almost any invertebrates or small animals they can fit in their mouths and in turn sustaining a number of birds and mammals, such as wildlife. Improving situations for toads – ie building water habitats, conserving woodland and constructing toad tunnels – "benefits for a wide range of other species."

Cultural Importance

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