Can the UK's Toads Be Saved from Traffic and Population Collapse?

It is Friday evening at half past seven, but instead of going out or relaxing at home, I've taken a train to a town in the countryside to join volunteers from a toad patrol. These dedicated individuals sacrifice their nights to safeguard the local toad population.

An Alarming Decline in Numbers

The Bufo bufo is growing more rare. A latest study led by an wildlife conservation group revealed that the British common toad numbers have dropped by half since the mid-1980s. Seeing a creature that has been a fixture of the British countryside in decline is described as "worrying" by experts. Toads "don't need very specific conditions" and "ought to live quite well 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."

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

The Danger from Traffic

Though the study didn't examine the causes for the drop, cars certainly plays a part. Calculations indicate that 20 tons of toads are crushed on UK roads annually – in other words, hundreds of thousands. Unlike frogs, which would probably be happy to mate "with just a bucket of water," toads prefer big bodies of water. Their ability to remain away from water for more time than frogs allows they can journey farther to find them – often long distances. They tend to stick to their ancestral migration routes – it's common for mature amphibians to go back to their birth pond to mate.

Breeding Patterns

Appropriately enough, the initial amphibians start their journey for a mate around Valentine's day, but some move as late as April, waiting until it gets dark and moving after sunset. During that period, 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 amphibians since he was a child, explains that "Their sole purpose: to go and mate." If their route crosses a street, they could be killed by traffic, and that breeding season would never happen – stopping a next generation of toads from being born.

Rescue Groups Throughout the United Kingdom

Seeing hundreds of toad carcasses on local roads "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has resulted in the creation of toad patrols across the UK – 274 groups are currently registered with a countrywide program. These teams collect toads and carry them across roads in buckets, as well as recording the quantity of toads they encounter and lobbying for other protection measures, such as road closures and underground wildlife tunnels.

Patrols 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 been eggs and then tadpoles, exit their ponds over an unpredictable schedule in late summer. Because of their small stature – just a couple of cm wide – "they are destroyed 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 killed, their remains can be counted.

Annual Efforts

In contrast to many groups, one local team, who are in their eighth season of operating, go out year-round – not nightly, but when weather are damp, or if someone has posted about a toad sighting in their group chat. When I ask to join them on duty, they admit it is "not a toady night" – toad hibernation season has started and it's been a dry day – but several of the volunteers willingly accept to walk up and down their area with me and see what we can find. "Should anyone can find any toads tonight, that pair will spot one," says the patrol manager, pointing to her teenage child and the experienced member. We've been out for 120 minutes without a single toad sighting, and now they have climbed over 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 loves all things nature-related and has an goal to become a environmentalist, so his mother started to search for activities they could do jointly to help native animals. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the middle-aged entrepreneur explains – so when the group was seeking a fresh coordinator lately, she volunteered for the role.

The teenager, too, has been instrumental in the organization. A video he created, urging the municipal authority to block a road through a protected area during breeding time, swung the decision the team's way. After a twelve months of lobbying, the council agreed to an "access-only" restriction between 5pm and 5am from late winter through to spring. Most drivers duly avoided the road.

Other Wildlife and Challenges

Several cars go past when I'm out on patrol and we find some victims 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 harvestman, which moves in his palms. Yet in spite of the group's hardest attempts to show me a toad, the local population has clearly settled down for the winter. It seems that I wouldn't have had any better success elsewhere in the nation – all the patrol groups I contact explain that it's very difficult at this season.

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

One email I get from another volunteer, who has kindly taken the trouble to check for toads in a famous site, thought to be the largest accurately monitored toad group in the UK, reaches me with the title: "None found." However, in February and March, he tells me, the team plans to assist around 10,000 adult toads across the road.

Effectiveness and Challenges

What level of impact can these organizations truly achieve? "The fact that volunteers are performing this consistently on cold, damp and unpleasant evenings is quite extraordinary," says an researcher. "That's something that very much should be celebrated." However, while toad patrols are able to reduce the drop, they cannot prevent it entirely – partly since traffic is not the only threat.

Additional Threats

The climate crisis 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 warmer ponds have led to an increase of toxic plants, which can be harmful to toads. Milder winters also cause toads to emerge from their hibernation more frequently, interfering with the energy conservation crucial to their existence. Loss of environment – especially the disappearance of big water bodies – is an additional threat.

Researchers are "often concerned about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on biodiversity," however "There is a big value in just having these animals around." But toads play an significant part in the food chain, eating almost any small creatures or tiny organisms they can fit in their mouths and in turn feeding a variety of birds and mammals, such as wildlife. Improving conditions for toads – ie creating more ponds, protecting forests and constructing amphibian passages – "we'll improve them for a wide range of other species."

Cultural Significance

Another reason to work to preserve toads present is their "historical significance," notes an expert. Legends and tales around toads go back {centuries|hundred