Can the UK's Toads Be Saved from Roads and Terrible Decline?

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 amphibian rescue group. These committed people sacrifice their nights to safeguard the local toad population.

An Alarming Decline in Population

The Bufo bufo is becoming increasingly rare. 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 UK landscape in decline is described as "worrying" by experts. Toads "don't require very particular environments" 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 the ecosystem is unbalanced."

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

The Threat from Roads

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 UK roads every year – in other words, hundreds of thousands. Unlike frogs, which would probably be happy to mate "with just a bucket of water," toads favor large ponds. Their capacity to remain away from water for longer than frogs means they can travel further to find them – often long distances. They tend to stick to their traditional paths – it's typical for adult toads to return to their natal pond to mate.

Breeding Habits

Fittingly, the first toads begin their quest for a partner around Valentine's day, but some move as far as April, waiting until it gets night and travelling after sunset. During that period, toads start moving from where they have been hibernating "all pretty much at the same time."

One volunteer, who was raised in the region and has been working to save its toad population since he was a boy, notes that "Their sole purpose: to go and have an orgy." If their route happens to a street, they could all get run over, and that breeding season would be lost – stopping a new generation of toads from being produced.

Toad Patrols Throughout the United Kingdom

Finding hundreds of dead toads on nearby streets "resonates deeply with people," and has led to the creation of rescue teams across the UK – hundreds of organizations are currently registered with a national initiative. These teams collect toads and transport them across roads in buckets, as well as recording the quantity of toads they encounter and lobbying for other protection measures, such as blocked roads and amphibian passages.

Volunteers tend to operate during the breeding period, when toad crossings are frequent. However, this implies they can miss groups of toadlets, which, having been spawn and then juveniles, leave their ponds over an unpredictable schedule in late summer. Because of their size – just one or two centimetres wide – "they can get obliterated by vehicles." And as being hit "essentially crushes them," it's harder to get data on them. At least when mature amphibians are killed, their remains can be tallied.

Year-Round Efforts

In contrast to many groups, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth season of operating, go out throughout the year – not every night, but whenever conditions are damp, or if someone has reported about a amphibian spotting in their group chat. When I ask to join them on patrol, they concede it is "not ideal conditions" – toad hibernation season has begun and it's been a arid period – but a few of the volunteers gamely agree to patrol their route with me and see what we can find. "Should anyone can locate any toads tonight, those two will find one," says the patrol manager, indicating her teenage child and the longtime volunteer. We've been out for 120 minutes without a glimpse of any amphibians, and now they have scaled a wire barrier to check under some wood.

Community Participation

The family duo joined the patrol a year and a half ago. The teenager loves all things nature-related and has an goal to become a conservationist, so his mother started to look for activities they could do jointly to help native animals. Now she loves it as much as he does, the 41-year-old entrepreneur tells me – so when the team was seeking a fresh coordinator lately, she decided to step up.

The youth, too, has played an important role in the group. A video he created, urging the municipal authority to close a street through a protected area during migration season, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a twelve months of lobbying, the council agreed to an "restricted access" rule between 5pm and 5am from February through to April. Most drivers respected and avoided the route.

Additional Species and Challenges

A few cars go by when I'm out on duty and we discover some victims as a consequence – no amphibians, but several crushed salamanders. We spot one live amphibian as well, and the youngster is especially excited to see a harvestman, which dances in his hands. Yet despite the team's hardest attempts to show me a toad, the local population has obviously gone dormant for the winter. It seems that I couldn't have found any better success anywhere else in the nation – all the patrol groups I contact clarify that it's near-impossible at this season.

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

A message I get from a different helper, who has generously made the effort to check for toads in a famous site, thought to be the biggest tracked toad group in the UK, reaches me with the subject line: "None found." However, in late winter, he informs me, the group plans to assist around 10,000 mature amphibians over the street.

Effectiveness and Challenges

What level of impact can these groups truly achieve? "The reality that volunteers are performing this consistently on cold, damp and unpleasant late nights is quite extraordinary," says an researcher. "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 traffic is just one danger.

Other Dangers

The global warming has resulted in longer periods of drought, which create the wrong conditions for some of the creatures that toads consume, such as worms and slugs, while higher water temperatures have caused an increase of toxic plants, which can be toxic to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to wake up from their dormancy more frequently, disrupting the resource preservation crucial to their existence. Loss of environment – 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 their presence." But toads play an important role in the food chain, eating almost any small creatures or tiny organisms they can fit in their mouths and in turn sustaining a variety of predators, such as wildlife. Improving conditions for toads – such as creating more ponds, conserving woodland and installing toad tunnels – "benefits for a whole bunch of additional wildlife."

Cultural Importance

An additional motive to try to keep toads around is their "historical significance," notes an specialist. Myths and folklore around toads go back {centuries|hundred