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It is a Friday evening at half past seven, but instead of heading to the pub or relaxing at home, I've taken a train to a market town in Wiltshire to meet up with volunteers from a toad patrol. These dedicated individuals sacrifice their nights to protect the local toad population.

An Alarming Decline in Population

The Bufo bufo is growing more uncommon. A latest research conducted by an wildlife conservation group showed that the UK toad population have almost halved since 1985. Seeing a species that has been a fixture 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 areas in the UK," 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 Traffic

Though the study didn't cover the causes for the drop, cars certainly plays a part. Calculations suggest that 20 tons of toads are killed on British roads every year – that is, several hundred thousand. In contrast to frogs, which would probably be content to mate "with just a small container," toads prefer big bodies of water. Their capacity to stay out of water for longer than frogs allows they can travel further to find them – often hundreds of metres. They usually follow their ancestral migration routes – it's typical for adult toads to go back to their natal pond to mate.

Migration Habits

Appropriately enough, the initial amphibians begin their quest for a mate around Valentine's day, but others travel as late as spring, until it gets night and moving through the night. During that time, toads begin migrating from wherever 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 boy, explains that "They've got just one focus: to go and have an orgy." If their path 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.

Rescue Groups Throughout the UK

Finding hundreds of dead toads on local roads "resonates deeply with people," and has led to the formation of rescue teams across the UK – hundreds of organizations are officially listed with a countrywide program. These teams collect toads and transport them across roads in buckets, as well as recording the number of toads they find and advocating for other protection measures, such as blocked roads and underground wildlife tunnels.

Patrols tend to operate during the breeding period, when toad crossings are more regular. However, this implies they can miss numbers of toadlets, which, having been eggs and then tadpoles, 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 car traffic." And as being hit "basically turns them into mush," it's more difficult to get data on them. At least when adult toads are killed, their carcasses can be tallied.

Year-Round Efforts

Unlike many groups, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth season of operating, go out throughout the year – not every night, but when conditions are damp, or if someone has posted about a amphibian spotting in their group chat. When I request to accompany them on duty, they admit it is "not ideal conditions" – winter dormancy has started and it's been a dry day – but a few of the volunteers willingly accept to patrol their route with me and see what we can find. "If anyone can find any toads tonight, that pair will spot one," says the group coordinator, pointing to her 14-year-old son and the longtime volunteer. After for two hours without a single toad sighting, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to inspect beneath some logs.

Family Involvement

The mother and son became part of the group a year and a half ago. The teenager loves all things wildlife and has an goal to become a environmentalist, so his mother started to look for activities they could do together to help local wildlife. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the 41-year-old small business owner explains – so when the team was seeking a new manager recently, she volunteered for the role.

The youth, too, has played an important role in the organization. A clip he created, imploring the municipal authority to close a street through a nature reserve during migration season, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a twelve months of campaigning, the authority agreed to an "access-only" restriction between evening and morning from late winter through to spring. Most drivers duly avoided the route.

Additional Species and Challenges

A few vehicles go past when I'm out on duty and we find some casualties as a consequence – no toads, but three squashed newts. We spot one living newt as well, and the youngster is particularly pleased to see a daddy longlegs, which moves in his hands. Yet despite the group's hardest attempts to let me see a toad, the native community has clearly gone dormant for the colder months. It seems that I wouldn't have had any better success anywhere else in the country – all the rescue teams I contact 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 look for toads in a noted location, thought to be the largest accurately monitored toad population in the UK, reaches me with the title: "None found." However, in late winter, he informs me, the team plans to assist around ten thousand adult toads over the street.

Effectiveness and Limitations

What level of impact can these organizations actually make? "The fact that volunteers are performing this regularly on cold, damp and unpleasant late nights is quite extraordinary," says an expert. "That's something that very much deserves recognition." However, while toad patrols are able to slow the decline, they cannot prevent it entirely – not least because vehicles is not the only threat.

Additional Threats

The climate crisis has resulted in longer periods of dry weather, which create the wrong conditions for some of the animals that toads eat, such as worms and slugs, while higher water temperatures have led to an rise of toxic plants, which can be toxic to toads. Milder winters also lead toads to emerge from their dormancy more frequently, disrupting the energy conservation vital to their life cycle. Habitat destruction – particularly the disappearance of large ponds – is an additional threat.

Experts are "always a bit worried about overemphasizing practical benefits on biodiversity," however "There is a big value in just having these animals around." But toads do have an important role in the food chain, consuming almost any small creatures or tiny organisms they can swallow and in turn feeding a variety of predators, such as wildlife. Enhancing conditions for toads – such as building water habitats, conserving woodland and constructing toad tunnels – "benefits for a whole bunch of other species."

Cultural Significance

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