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It's Friday night at half past seven, but rather than going out or watching a film, I've caught a train to a market town in Wiltshire to join local helpers from a toad patrol. These committed people sacrifice their evenings to safeguard the native amphibian community.

An Alarming Decline in Population

The common toad is growing more uncommon. A recent research led by an amphibian and reptile charity revealed that the UK toad population have dropped by half since 1985. Seeing a creature that has been a fixture of the British countryside in decrease is described as "worrying" by experts. Toads "don't require very particular environments" and "ought to live successfully in the majority of areas in the UK," meaning if even they are struggling to persist, "it kind of suggests that the ecosystem is unbalanced."

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

The Danger from Roads

Though the research didn't examine the reasons for the drop, cars is a major factor. Estimates suggest that 20 tonnes of toads are crushed on UK roads every year – in other words, 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 more time than frogs allows they can travel further to reach them – sometimes hundreds of metres. They tend to follow their traditional paths – it's typical for mature amphibians to go back to their natal pond to mate.

Migration Habits

Appropriately enough, the first toads begin their quest for a mate around Valentine's day, but others travel as far as April, waiting until it gets night and moving after sunset. During that period, toads begin migrating from where they have been overwintering "almost simultaneously."

One volunteer, who was raised in the area and has been trying to protect its amphibians since he was a child, explains that "Their sole purpose: to go and have an orgy." If their route 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.

Toad Patrols Throughout the UK

Finding many of dead toads on local roads "resonates deeply with people," and has resulted in the creation of rescue teams across the UK – 274 groups are currently registered with a national initiative. These teams pick up toads and transport them over streets in buckets, as well as recording the quantity of toads they encounter and advocating for other protection measures, such as road closures and amphibian passages.

Volunteers tend to operate during the migration season, when toad crossings are frequent. However, this means they can miss numbers of toadlets, which, having been spawn and then tadpoles, exit their water habitats over an unpredictable schedule in the end of summer. Because of their size – just one or two centimetres 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 adult toads are lost, their remains can be tallied.

Annual Work

In contrast to many groups, one local team, who are in their eighth year of functioning, 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 ask to join them on duty, they concede 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 area with me and see what we can find. "If anyone can locate any toads tonight, those two will spot one," says the patrol manager, indicating her 14-year-old son and the longtime volunteer. 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 joined the group a while back. The teenager loves all things wildlife and has an ambition 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 middle-aged entrepreneur tells me – so when the team was seeking a new manager lately, she decided to step up.

The youth, too, has played an important role in the organization. A clip he made, urging the local council to block a street through a protected area during migration season, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a twelve months of campaigning, the council agreed to an "restricted access" rule between 5pm and 5am from February through to April. Most drivers respected and avoided the road.

Additional Species and Difficulties

Several vehicles go past when I'm out on duty and we discover some casualties as a result – no amphibians, but several crushed salamanders. We see one living newt as well, and the teenager is particularly pleased to see a harvestman, which dances in his hands. Yet despite the team's hardest attempts to let me see a toad, the local population has obviously gone dormant for the colder months. It seems that I couldn't have found any better success elsewhere in the nation – all the patrol groups I contact 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 taken the trouble to check for toads in a famous site, thought to be the largest accurately monitored toad population in the UK, reaches me with the title: "None found." However, in February and March, he informs me, the group plans to assist approximately 10,000 mature amphibians over the street.

Effectiveness and Challenges

What level of impact can these organizations truly achieve? "The reality that volunteers are performing this consistently on chilly, wet and miserable evenings is remarkable," notes an expert. "This effort that very much deserves recognition." 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 meant longer periods of dry weather, 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 toxic plants, which can be harmful to toads. Milder winters also cause toads to wake up from their dormancy more frequently, interfering with the energy conservation crucial to their life cycle. Habitat destruction – particularly the loss of large ponds – is an additional threat.

Experts are "often concerned about overemphasizing practical benefits on biodiversity," but "There is a big value in just their presence." But toads do have an important role in the ecosystem, eating almost any small creatures or small animals they can swallow and in turn feeding a number of predators, such as wildlife. Improving conditions for toads – such as building water habitats, protecting forests and constructing toad tunnels – "benefits for a wide range of additional wildlife."

Cultural Importance

Another reason to try to keep toads around is their "historical significance," adds an expert. Legends and tales around toads go back {centuries|hundred