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It is Friday evening at half past seven, but rather than heading to the pub or relaxing at home, I've caught a train to a market town in Wiltshire to meet up with local helpers from a toad patrol. These committed people give up their evenings to protect the native amphibian community.

A Worrying Decline in Population

The Bufo bufo is becoming increasingly rare. A recent study conducted by an wildlife conservation group showed that the British common toad numbers have dropped by half since the mid-1980s. Seeing a species that has been a fixture of the UK landscape in decline is labeled "worrying" by researchers. Toads "don't require very specific conditions" and "ought to live quite well in most of areas in Britain," 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 cover the causes for the drop, traffic certainly plays a part. Estimates indicate that 20 tonnes of toads are crushed on UK roads annually – in other words, several hundred thousand. In contrast to frogs, which might be happy to mate "if you left out a bucket of water," toads prefer large ponds. Their capacity to stay out of water for more time than frogs means they can travel further to reach them – sometimes hundreds of metres. They tend to follow their ancestral migration routes – it's common for adult toads to return to their birth pond to mate.

Breeding Patterns

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

One volunteer, who was raised 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 have an orgy." If their route crosses a street, they could be killed by traffic, and that breeding season would be lost – stopping a next generation of toads from being produced.

Toad Patrols Across the UK

Finding hundreds of toad carcasses on nearby streets "resonates deeply with people," and has led to the creation of toad patrols throughout the UK – hundreds of organizations are officially listed with a countrywide program. These teams pick up toads and carry them across roads in buckets, as well as counting the number of toads they encounter and lobbying for other safety solutions, such as blocked roads and underground wildlife tunnels.

Patrols tend to operate during the breeding period, when amphibian movements are more regular. However, this means they can miss numbers of toadlets, which, having been eggs and then tadpoles, exit their water habitats over an irregular timetable in the end of summer. Because of their size – just one or two centimetres wide – "they are destroyed by vehicles." And as being run over "basically turns them into mush," it's harder to get data on them. At least when adult toads are killed, their remains can be counted.

Year-Round Work

In contrast to many groups, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth year of functioning, go out year-round – not every night, but whenever weather 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" – winter dormancy has started and it's been a dry day – but a few of the volunteers gamely agree to walk up and down their area with me and see what we can find. "If anyone can locate any toads tonight, that pair will find one," says the group coordinator, pointing to her teenage child and the longtime volunteer. After for two hours without a glimpse of any amphibians, and now they have climbed over a barbed wire fence to check under some logs.

Community Participation

The family duo joined 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 look for activities they could do jointly to help native animals. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the middle-aged small business owner explains – so when the team was seeking a new manager lately, she decided to step up.

The teenager, too, has played an important role in the organization. A clip he created, imploring the local council to block a street through a nature reserve during migration season, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a year of lobbying, the authority agreed to an "access-only" restriction between evening and morning from late winter through to April. The majority of motorists duly avoided the route.

Additional Species and Challenges

Several vehicles go past when I'm out on duty and we discover some casualties as a consequence – no toads, but three squashed newts. We see one live amphibian as well, and the youngster is especially excited to see a harvestman, which dances in his palms. Yet despite the team's best efforts to let me see a toad, the native community has clearly settled down for the colder months. It seems that I couldn't have found any more luck anywhere else in the nation – 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 kindly taken the trouble to check 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: "No toads." However, in February and March, he tells me, the group plans to assist around 10,000 adult toads across the road.

Effectiveness and Challenges

What level of impact can these organizations truly achieve? "The reality that volunteers are doing this regularly on cold, damp and unpleasant late nights is remarkable," notes an researcher. "This effort that very much should be celebrated." However, while toad patrols are able to slow the decline, they can't stop it completely – not least because traffic is just one danger.

Other Dangers

The global warming has meant extended spells of drought, which create the wrong conditions for some of the animals that toads consume, such as invertebrates, while warmer ponds have led to an increase of toxic plants, which can be toxic to toads. Milder winters also cause toads to wake up from their dormancy more often, disrupting the resource preservation vital to their existence. Habitat destruction – particularly the loss of big water bodies – is another menace.

Researchers are "often concerned about overemphasizing practical benefits on wildlife," but "There is a big value in just having these animals around." But toads play an significant part in the ecosystem, consuming pretty much any small creatures or tiny organisms they can swallow and in turn sustaining a variety of predators, such as hedgehogs and otters. Improving situations for toads – ie building water habitats, conserving woodland and installing amphibian passages – "benefits for a whole bunch of other species."

Cultural Importance

An additional motive to try to keep toads around is their "important cultural value," notes an expert. Myths and folklore around toads date back {centuries|hundred