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It is a Friday night at 7:30, but instead of going out or watching a film, 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 evenings to protect the local toad population.

An Alarming Decline in Numbers

The Bufo bufo is growing more rare. A recent study led by an amphibian and reptile charity showed 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 particular environments" and "ought to live successfully 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."

The UK toad population has almost halved since 1985

The Threat from Traffic

Though the research didn't examine the reasons for the decline, cars certainly plays a part. Calculations suggest that 20 tonnes of toads are killed on British roads every year – that is, hundreds of thousands. In contrast to frogs, which might be happy to mate "with just a bucket of water," toads favor large ponds. Their capacity to remain away from water for more time than frogs allows they can travel further to reach them – often hundreds of metres. They usually follow their traditional paths – it's common for adult toads to go back to their birth pond to mate.

Migration Habits

Appropriately enough, the first toads start their journey for a partner around Valentine's day, but some move as late as spring, waiting until it gets dark and travelling after sunset. During that period, toads begin migrating from where they have been overwintering "all pretty much at the same time."

A local helper, who was raised in the area and has been working to save its amphibians since he was a child, notes that "They've got just one focus: to go and mate." If their route crosses a street, they could all get run over, and that mating period would never happen – stopping a next generation of toads from being produced.

Toad Patrols Throughout the UK

Seeing hundreds of dead toads on nearby streets "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has resulted in the formation of toad patrols across the UK – 274 groups are officially listed with a countrywide program. These teams collect toads and carry them across roads in buckets, as well as counting the quantity of toads they find and lobbying for other safety solutions, such as road closures and underground wildlife tunnels.

Volunteers tend to operate during the breeding period, when toad crossings are more regular. However, this implies they can overlook groups of toadlets, which, having been eggs and then tadpoles, leave their ponds over an irregular timetable in the end of summer. Because of their small stature – just a couple of cm wide – "they are destroyed by car traffic." And as being hit "basically turns them into mush," it's harder to collect information on them. At least when adult toads are lost, their carcasses can be counted.

Annual Work

Unlike many groups, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth season of functioning, go out throughout the year – not nightly, 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 a toady night" – toad hibernation season has begun and it's been a dry day – but several of the helpers willingly accept to patrol their area with me and see what we can find. "If anyone can find any toads tonight, that pair will find one," says the group coordinator, indicating her 14-year-old son and the longtime volunteer. After for 120 minutes without a single toad sighting, and now they have climbed over a barbed wire fence to check under some logs.

Community Involvement

The mother and son joined the patrol a while back. The youngster adores all things wildlife and has an ambition to become a environmentalist, so his parent started to search for things they could do jointly to protect local wildlife. Now she loves it as much as he does, the 41-year-old entrepreneur explains – so when the team was seeking a fresh coordinator recently, she decided to step up.

The youth, too, has played an important role in the organization. A clip he created, urging the local council to block a road through a protected area during migration season, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a year of lobbying, the authority agreed to an "access-only" rule between evening and morning from February through to spring. The majority of motorists respected and avoided the road.

Other Wildlife and Challenges

Several cars go by when I'm out on patrol and we find some victims as a result – no toads, but several crushed salamanders. We see one living newt as well, and the teenager is particularly pleased to see a daddy longlegs, which dances in his hands. Yet despite the group's best efforts to let me see a toad, the native community has obviously settled down for the winter. It seems that I wouldn't have had any better success elsewhere in the country – all the rescue teams I contact clarify that it's very difficult at this season.

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

One email 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 subject line: "No toads." However, in late winter, he tells me, the team plans to assist approximately ten thousand adult toads across the road.

Effectiveness and Limitations

What level of impact can these groups truly achieve? "The reality that people are performing this consistently on cold, damp and unpleasant evenings is remarkable," says an expert. "This effort that very much should be celebrated." However, while toad patrols are able to reduce the drop, they can't stop it completely – not least because traffic is not the only threat.

Additional Threats

The climate crisis has meant longer periods of drought, which cause the wrong conditions for some of the creatures that toads consume, such as worms and slugs, while higher water temperatures have caused an rise of toxic plants, which can be toxic to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to emerge from their hibernation more frequently, interfering with the resource preservation crucial to their existence. Habitat destruction – 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 "There is a big value in just having these animals around." But toads do have an important role in the ecosystem, consuming almost any invertebrates or tiny organisms they can fit in their mouths and in turn sustaining a variety of predators, such as wildlife. Enhancing situations for toads – ie building water habitats, protecting forests and constructing toad tunnels – "we'll improve them for a whole bunch of other species."

Cultural Significance

An additional motive to work to preserve toads present is their "important cultural value," notes an specialist. Myths and folklore around toads date back {centuries|hundred