It is a Friday evening at half past seven, but instead of going out or relaxing at home, I've caught a train to a town in Wiltshire to join volunteers from a amphibian rescue group. These committed people give up their nights to safeguard the native amphibian community.
The common toad is becoming increasingly rare. A latest research conducted by an amphibian and reptile charity showed that the British common toad numbers have dropped by half since the mid-1980s. Observing a creature that has been a stalwart of the British countryside in decline is described as "worrying" by researchers. Toads "don't require very specific conditions" and "should be able to live successfully in most of areas in Britain," meaning if even they are not managing to survive, "it indicates that the ecosystem is unbalanced."
The UK toad population has almost halved since 1985
Though the study didn't cover the reasons for the decline, cars certainly plays a part. Calculations indicate that 20 tonnes of toads are killed on UK roads every year – in other words, several hundred thousand. Unlike frogs, which might be content to mate "if you left out a small container," toads prefer big bodies of water. Their capacity to stay out of water for more time than frogs means they can journey farther to reach them – sometimes long distances. They tend to follow their traditional paths – it's typical for mature amphibians to return to their natal pond to mate.
Appropriately enough, the first toads begin their quest for a mate around February 14th, but others travel as late as spring, until it gets dark and travelling after sunset. During that time, toads begin migrating from where they have been hibernating "almost simultaneously."
A local helper, who was raised in the area and has been trying to protect its amphibians since he was a boy, notes that "They've got just one focus: to go and have an orgy." If their path happens to a road, they could be killed by traffic, and that mating period would never happen – stopping a next generation of toads from being born.
Seeing many of toad carcasses on local roads "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has resulted in the creation of toad patrols throughout the UK – 274 groups are officially listed with a countrywide program. These groups collect toads and transport them across roads in containers, as well as recording the number of toads they find and lobbying for other protection measures, such as road closures and underground wildlife tunnels.
Patrols tend to operate during the migration season, when amphibian movements are more regular. However, this implies they can overlook numbers of toadlets, which, having been spawn and then juveniles, 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 "essentially crushes them," it's harder to collect information on them. At least when adult toads are lost, their remains can be counted.
In contrast to many groups, one local team, who are in their eighth season of operating, go out year-round – not nightly, but whenever conditions are damp, or if someone has posted about a toad sighting in their messaging app. When I request to accompany them on patrol, they admit it is "not a toady night" – winter dormancy has started and it's been a dry day – but a few of the helpers gamely agree to patrol their area with me and search for any toads. "Should anyone can locate any toads tonight, that pair will find one," says the patrol manager, indicating her teenage child and the experienced member. We've been out for two hours without a single toad sighting, and now they have scaled a wire barrier to check under some logs.
The family duo joined the group a year and a half ago. The youngster loves all things nature-related and has an ambition to become a conservationist, so his parent started to look for things they could do jointly to help native animals. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the middle-aged entrepreneur explains – so when the group was seeking a fresh coordinator recently, she volunteered for the role.
The teenager, too, has been instrumental in the organization. A video 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 twelve months of campaigning, the authority agreed to an "access-only" rule between evening and morning from February through to April. The majority of motorists respected and avoided the road.
A few cars go by when I'm out on duty and we discover some victims as a result – no toads, but three squashed newts. We see one living newt as well, and the teenager is particularly pleased to see a daddy longlegs, which moves in his hands. Yet in spite of the team's best efforts to show me a toad, the local population has clearly gone dormant for the winter. It seems that I couldn't have found any more luck anywhere else in the country – all the patrol groups I reach out to explain that it's near-impossible at this season.
This team anticipates assisting around ten thousand mature toads over the street
A message I receive from another volunteer, who has generously taken the trouble to check for toads in a noted location, considered the largest accurately monitored toad group in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the subject line: "None found." However, in late winter, he informs me, the group plans to assist around 10,000 mature amphibians across the road.
How much of a difference can these groups actually make? "The fact that volunteers are performing this regularly on cold, damp and unpleasant late nights is quite extraordinary," says an researcher. "That's something that very much deserves recognition." However, while rescue teams are able to reduce the drop, they cannot prevent it entirely – partly since traffic is not the only threat.
The climate crisis has meant extended spells of dry weather, which cause the wrong conditions for some of the creatures that toads eat, 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 energy conservation vital to their existence. Habitat destruction – especially the disappearance of large ponds – is another menace.
Researchers are "often concerned about overemphasizing practical benefits on biodiversity," however "It's important in just having these animals around." But toads do have an significant part in the food chain, consuming almost any small creatures or tiny organisms they can fit in their mouths and in turn feeding a number of birds and mammals, such as hedgehogs and otters. Enhancing conditions for toads – such as building water habitats, protecting forests and constructing toad tunnels – "we'll improve them for a wide range of other species."
An additional motive to work to preserve toads around is their "important cultural value," notes an expert. Myths and folklore around toads date back {centuries|hundred
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