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It's a Friday evening at half past seven, but rather than heading to the pub or watching a film, I've taken a train to a town in Wiltshire to join volunteers from a amphibian rescue group. These committed people sacrifice their evenings to protect the local toad population.

A Worrying Decline in Numbers

The common toad is growing more uncommon. A latest research conducted by an amphibian and reptile charity revealed that the British common toad numbers have almost halved since the mid-1980s. Seeing a species that has been a stalwart of the UK landscape in decrease is labeled "concerning" by researchers. Toads "don't require very particular environments" and "ought to live successfully in most of areas in Britain," so if even they are struggling to persist, "it indicates that things are not as they should be."

The UK toad population has almost halved since 1985

The Threat from Roads

Though the research didn't examine the reasons for the drop, traffic is a major factor. Estimates suggest that 20 tonnes of toads are crushed on British roads annually – in other words, hundreds of thousands. In contrast to frogs, which might be content to mate "with just a bucket of water," toads prefer large ponds. Their ability to stay out of water for longer than frogs allows they can travel further to reach them – sometimes hundreds of metres. They usually follow their ancestral migration routes – it's common for mature amphibians to return to their natal pond to mate.

Breeding Patterns

Fittingly, the first toads begin their quest for a mate around February 14th, but some move as late as spring, until it gets dark and travelling through the night. During that period, toads begin migrating from wherever they have been overwintering "almost simultaneously."

One volunteer, who was raised in the region and has been trying to protect its toad population since he was a child, notes that "They've got just one focus: to go and have an orgy." If their route happens to a street, they could all get run over, and that mating period would be lost – stopping a new generation of toads from being produced.

Rescue Groups Across the United Kingdom

Seeing hundreds of dead toads on nearby streets "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has led to the formation of rescue teams throughout the UK – hundreds of organizations are currently registered with a countrywide program. These teams pick up toads and transport them over streets in buckets, as well as recording the number of toads they find and advocating 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 means they can miss groups of young toads, which, having been eggs and then tadpoles, leave their ponds over an irregular timetable in the end of summer. Because of their size – just a couple of cm wide – "they can get obliterated by car traffic." And as being run over "essentially crushes them," it's harder to collect information on them. At least when adult toads are lost, their carcasses can be tallied.

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 nightly, but whenever weather are damp, or if someone has reported about a toad sighting in their group chat. When I request to accompany them on duty, they concede it is "not ideal conditions" – toad hibernation season has started and it's been a arid period – but several of the volunteers gamely agree to walk up and down their area with me and search for any toads. "If anyone can locate any toads tonight, that pair will spot one," says the group coordinator, pointing to her teenage child and the longtime volunteer. After for 120 minutes without a single toad sighting, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to inspect beneath some wood.

Family Participation

The mother and son joined the patrol a year and a half ago. The teenager loves all things wildlife and has an ambition to become a conservationist, so his mother started to look for things they could do together 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 looking for a fresh coordinator recently, she volunteered for the role.

The youth, too, has been instrumental in the group. A video he made, urging the municipal authority to block a road through a protected area during migration season, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a year of campaigning, the council agreed to an "access-only" restriction between evening and morning from February through to spring. Most drivers respected and avoided the route.

Other Wildlife and Difficulties

Several vehicles go past when I'm out on patrol and we find some victims as a consequence – no amphibians, but several crushed salamanders. We see one live amphibian as well, and the teenager is especially excited to see a daddy longlegs, which dances in his palms. Yet in spite of the team's hardest attempts to let me see a toad, the local population has clearly gone dormant for the winter. It seems that I wouldn't have had any more luck anywhere else in the country – all the patrol groups I reach out to clarify that it's very difficult at this season.

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

One email I receive from another volunteer, who has generously made the effort to look for toads in a noted location, considered 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 ten thousand adult toads across the road.

Impact and Challenges

What level of impact can these organizations truly achieve? "The fact that volunteers are performing this regularly on chilly, wet and miserable evenings is quite extraordinary," notes an expert. "This effort that very much should be celebrated." However, while rescue teams are able to slow the decline, they cannot prevent it entirely – not least because traffic is just one danger.

Additional Threats

The global warming has meant extended spells of dry weather, which cause the wrong conditions for some of the creatures that toads consume, such as worms and slugs, while warmer ponds have led to an rise of toxic plants, which can be harmful to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to emerge from their hibernation more frequently, interfering with the energy conservation vital to their life cycle. Loss of environment – particularly the loss of big water bodies – is another menace.

Experts are "often concerned about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on biodiversity," but "There is a big value in just having these animals around." But toads play an important role in the food chain, consuming pretty much any small creatures or tiny organisms they can fit in their mouths and in turn sustaining a number of predators, such as hedgehogs and otters. Improving conditions for toads – ie building water habitats, protecting forests and constructing toad tunnels – "we'll improve them for a wide range of other species."

Historical Importance

Another reason to try to keep toads around is their "historical significance," adds an specialist. Myths and folklore around toads date back {centuries|hundred