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It is a Friday evening at 7:30, but rather than heading to the pub or relaxing at home, 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 give up their nights to safeguard the local toad population.

An Alarming Drop in Population

The common toad is becoming increasingly rare. A recent research led by an amphibian and reptile charity showed that the British common toad numbers have almost halved since the mid-1980s. Seeing a species that has been a fixture of the UK landscape in decline is labeled "concerning" by experts. Toads "don't require very particular environments" and "should be able to live successfully in most of habitats in the UK," so if even they are not managing to survive, "it indicates that things are not as they should be."

The UK toad population has almost halved since 1985

The Danger from Roads

Though the research didn't examine the reasons for the drop, cars is a major factor. Estimates indicate that 20 tonnes of toads are crushed on British roads every year – in other words, several hundred thousand. In contrast to frogs, which would probably be happy to mate "with just a small container," toads prefer big bodies of water. Their capacity to stay out of water for more time than frogs allows they can travel further to reach them – sometimes hundreds of metres. They usually follow their traditional paths – it's typical for mature amphibians to go back to their natal pond to mate.

Breeding Habits

Appropriately enough, the initial amphibians start their journey for a partner around Valentine's day, but others travel as late as April, until it gets night and moving through the night. During that time, toads start moving from wherever they have been hibernating "almost simultaneously."

One volunteer, who grew up in the area 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 road, they could be killed by traffic, and that breeding season would be lost – stopping a new generation of toads from being born.

Rescue Groups Across the UK

Finding hundreds of toad carcasses on nearby streets "resonates deeply with people," and has led to the creation of rescue teams throughout the UK – 274 groups are officially listed with a national initiative. These groups pick up toads and transport them over streets in containers, as well as counting the quantity of toads they encounter and lobbying for other safety solutions, such as road closures and amphibian passages.

Volunteers usually work during the migration season, when amphibian movements are more regular. However, this means they can overlook numbers of toadlets, which, having existed as eggs and then juveniles, exit their water habitats over an irregular timetable in late summer. Because of their small stature – just one or two centimetres wide – "they can get obliterated by vehicles." And as being hit "basically turns them into mush," it's more difficult to collect information on them. At least when adult toads are lost, their remains can be counted.

Annual Work

In contrast to many groups, one local team, 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" – 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. "Should anyone can find any toads tonight, those two will spot one," says the group coordinator, pointing to her teenage child and the experienced member. After for 120 minutes without a single toad sighting, and now they have climbed over a barbed wire fence to check under some logs.

Family Participation

The family duo became part of the group a year and a half ago. The youngster loves all things nature-related and has an ambition to become a environmentalist, so his mother started to search for activities they could do together to protect native animals. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the middle-aged small business owner tells me – so when the group was looking for a new manager lately, she volunteered for the role.

The youth, too, has played an important role in the organization. A video he created, urging the local council to close a street through a protected area during migration season, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a year of campaigning, the authority approved an "restricted access" restriction between evening and morning from February through to spring. The majority of motorists duly avoided the road.

Other Wildlife and Challenges

Several vehicles go by when I'm out on duty and we discover some victims as a consequence – no amphibians, but several crushed salamanders. We see one live amphibian as well, and the youngster is particularly pleased to see a daddy longlegs, which dances in his palms. Yet in spite of the group's hardest attempts to show me a toad, the local population has obviously settled down for the winter. It seems that I couldn't have found any more luck elsewhere in the country – all the patrol groups I reach out to explain that it's near-impossible at this season.

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

A message I receive from a different helper, who has generously made the effort 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 title: "None found." However, in February and March, he tells me, the team expects to help approximately 10,000 adult toads over the street.

Impact and Challenges

How much of a difference can these organizations truly achieve? "The reality that volunteers are performing this regularly on cold, damp and unpleasant evenings 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 – partly since traffic is not the only threat.

Additional Threats

The global warming has resulted in longer periods of dry weather, which create the poor environment for some of the animals that toads eat, such as worms and slugs, while higher water temperatures have led to an rise of blue-green algae, which can be harmful to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to emerge from their dormancy more frequently, disrupting the energy conservation crucial to their existence. 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 wildlife," however "There is a big value in just their presence." But toads play an important role in the ecosystem, consuming pretty much any invertebrates or tiny organisms they can swallow and in turn feeding a number of birds and mammals, such as wildlife. Improving situations for toads – such as building water habitats, protecting forests and constructing amphibian passages – "we'll improve them for a wide range of other species."

Historical Significance

Another reason to work to preserve toads around is their "historical significance," adds an expert. Myths and folklore around toads date back {centuries|hundred