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It is Friday evening at 7:30, but rather than going out or relaxing at home, I've taken a train to a market town in Wiltshire to join volunteers from a toad patrol. These dedicated individuals give up their nights to protect the local toad population.

A Worrying Decline in Numbers

The Bufo bufo is becoming increasingly rare. A latest research led by an amphibian and reptile charity showed that the British common toad numbers have dropped by half since the mid-1980s. Seeing a creature that has been a stalwart of the British countryside in decline is labeled "worrying" by researchers. Toads "don't require very particular environments" and "should be able to live quite well in the majority of areas in the UK," so if even they are struggling to persist, "it indicates that things are not as they should be."

Since 1985, Britain's toad numbers have nearly been cut in half

The Danger from Traffic

Though the study didn't cover the causes for the drop, cars is a major factor. Calculations indicate that 20 tonnes of toads are crushed on British roads every year – in other words, hundreds of thousands. In contrast to frogs, which might be content to mate "with just a bucket of water," toads favor big bodies of water. Their ability to stay out of water for longer than frogs means they can travel further to reach them – sometimes hundreds of metres. They usually stick to their ancestral migration routes – it's typical for mature amphibians to go back to their birth pond to mate.

Breeding Patterns

Appropriately enough, the initial amphibians start their journey for a mate around Valentine's day, but some move as far as April, waiting until it gets dark and moving after sunset. During that time, toads start moving from wherever they have been hibernating "almost simultaneously."

One volunteer, who grew up in the region and has been trying to protect its amphibians since he was a boy, notes that "They've got just one focus: to go and mate." If their path crosses a street, they could all get run over, and that mating period would be lost – stopping a next generation of toads from being produced.

Toad Patrols Across the United Kingdom

Seeing many of dead toads on nearby streets "resonates deeply with people," and has led to the creation of toad patrols throughout the UK – hundreds of organizations are currently registered with a countrywide program. These groups collect toads and carry them across roads in buckets, as well as recording the number of toads they encounter and lobbying for other protection measures, such as blocked roads and amphibian passages.

Patrols usually work during the breeding period, when toad crossings are frequent. However, this implies they can miss numbers of young toads, which, having been spawn and then tadpoles, leave their water habitats over an unpredictable schedule in late summer. Because of their size – just a couple of cm wide – "they are destroyed by car traffic." And as being hit "basically turns them into mush," it's more difficult to get data on them. At least when mature amphibians are killed, their carcasses can be counted.

Year-Round Work

Unlike many groups, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth year of functioning, go out year-round – not nightly, but whenever weather are warm and wet, or if a member has reported about a amphibian spotting in their messaging app. When I request to accompany them on duty, they admit it is "not ideal conditions" – winter dormancy has started and it's been a arid period – but several of the helpers gamely agree to patrol their route with me and see what we can find. "If anyone can find any toads tonight, that pair will find one," says the patrol manager, pointing to her teenage child and the experienced member. We've been out for 120 minutes without a single toad sighting, and now they have climbed over a wire barrier to check under some wood.

Family Participation

The family duo became part of the patrol a while back. The youngster loves all things wildlife and has an goal to become a conservationist, so his mother started to look for things they could do jointly to protect native animals. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the 41-year-old entrepreneur explains – so when the group was looking for a new manager recently, she decided to step up.

The youth, too, has been instrumental in the group. A clip he made, urging the municipal authority to block a street through a protected area during migration season, swung the decision the group's way. After a twelve months of lobbying, the authority approved an "restricted access" rule between 5pm and 5am from February through to spring. Most drivers duly avoided the route.

Additional Species and Difficulties

A few cars go past when I'm out on patrol and we find some victims as a result – no amphibians, but several crushed salamanders. We spot one live amphibian as well, and the youngster is particularly pleased to see a daddy longlegs, which moves in his hands. Yet in spite of the group's best efforts to let me see a toad, the local population has obviously settled down for the winter. It appears that I couldn't have found any better success anywhere else in the nation – all the rescue teams I reach out to explain that it's near-impossible at this season.

They project rescuing nearly 10,000 grown amphibians during migration

A message I receive from another volunteer, who has kindly made the effort to check for toads in a famous site, thought to be the biggest tracked toad population in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the subject line: "None found." However, in late winter, he informs me, the team expects to help around 10,000 mature amphibians across the road.

Impact and Limitations

How much of a difference can these groups truly achieve? "The fact that volunteers are doing this regularly on cold, damp and unpleasant evenings is quite extraordinary," notes an expert. "That's something that very much deserves recognition." However, while rescue teams are able to reduce the drop, they can't stop it completely – partly since traffic is just one danger.

Additional Threats

The global warming has resulted in 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 toxic to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to wake up from their hibernation more frequently, interfering with the resource preservation crucial to their life cycle. Loss of environment – particularly the loss of large ponds – is another menace.

Experts are "often concerned about overemphasizing practical benefits on biodiversity," but "There is a big value in just having these animals around." But toads do have an important role in the food chain, eating pretty much any invertebrates or tiny organisms they can fit in their mouths and in turn sustaining a number of birds and mammals, such as wildlife. Improving conditions for toads – ie creating more ponds, protecting forests and installing amphibian passages – "we'll improve them for a whole bunch of additional wildlife."

Cultural Importance

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