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It is 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 meet up with volunteers from a amphibian rescue group. These dedicated individuals give up their evenings to protect the local toad population.

A Worrying Drop in Population

The common toad is growing more rare. A recent research conducted by an wildlife conservation group showed that the UK toad population have dropped by half since the mid-1980s. Observing a creature that has been a fixture of the UK landscape in decrease is described as "worrying" by experts. Toads "don't need very particular environments" and "should be able to live successfully in the majority of habitats in the UK," so if even they are not managing to survive, "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 study didn't examine the reasons for the drop, cars certainly plays a part. Estimates indicate that 20 tons of toads are killed on UK roads every year – that is, several hundred thousand. Unlike frogs, which would probably be happy to mate "with just a bucket of water," toads favor big bodies of water. Their capacity to stay out of water for longer than frogs allows they can travel further to find them – often hundreds of metres. They usually stick to their traditional paths – it's common for mature amphibians to return to their birth pond to mate.

Breeding Habits

Fittingly, the first toads start their journey for a mate around Valentine's day, but others travel as late as April, waiting until it gets night and moving through the night. During that time, toads begin migrating from where they have been overwintering "almost simultaneously."

One volunteer, who grew up in the area and has been trying to protect its toad population since he was a child, explains that "Their sole purpose: to go and have an orgy." If their path happens to a street, they could be killed by traffic, and that breeding season would never happen – preventing a new generation of toads from being born.

Toad Patrols Throughout the UK

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

Volunteers tend to operate during the breeding period, when amphibian movements are frequent. However, this means they can overlook groups of young toads, which, having been eggs and then tadpoles, exit their water habitats over an unpredictable schedule in late summer. Because of their size – just one or two centimetres wide – "they are destroyed by car traffic." And as being run over "basically turns them into mush," it's more difficult to get data on them. At least when mature amphibians are lost, their remains can be counted.

Year-Round Work

In contrast to most patrols, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth season of functioning, go out throughout the year – not nightly, but when conditions are warm and wet, or if a member has reported about a toad sighting in their messaging app. When I request to accompany them on patrol, they admit it is "not ideal conditions" – winter dormancy has started and it's been a dry day – but several of the volunteers willingly accept to walk up and down their area 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 longtime volunteer. We've been out for two hours without a single toad sighting, and now they have climbed over a barbed wire fence to inspect beneath some wood.

Family Participation

The mother and son became part of the group a while back. 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 protect native animals. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the 41-year-old entrepreneur explains – so when the team was seeking a fresh coordinator recently, she volunteered for the role.

The teenager, too, has played an important role in the group. A video he created, urging the municipal authority to close a road through a nature reserve during migration season, swung the decision the group's way. After a year of lobbying, the council agreed to an "restricted access" rule between evening and morning from late winter through to April. Most drivers duly avoided the road.

Other Wildlife and Challenges

Several vehicles go by when I'm out on patrol and we discover some casualties as a consequence – no toads, but several crushed salamanders. We see one living newt as well, and the teenager is particularly pleased to see a daddy longlegs, which moves in his palms. Yet despite the team's hardest attempts to show me a toad, the native community has clearly gone dormant for the winter. It appears that I couldn't have found any better success anywhere else in the country – all the rescue teams I reach out to clarify that it's near-impossible at this season.

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

One email I get from another volunteer, who has generously made the effort to look for toads in a famous site, considered the largest accurately monitored toad group in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the subject line: "No toads." However, in late winter, he tells me, the group plans to assist around ten thousand mature amphibians across the road.

Impact and Challenges

How much of a difference can these groups truly achieve? "The fact that people are doing this consistently on chilly, wet and miserable late nights is remarkable," notes an expert. "That's something that very much deserves recognition." However, while toad patrols are able to slow the decline, they cannot prevent it entirely – partly since vehicles is just one danger.

Other Dangers

The climate crisis has meant extended spells of drought, 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 blue-green algae, which can be harmful to toads. Milder winters also lead toads to emerge from their hibernation more often, disrupting the energy conservation crucial to their life cycle. Loss of environment – especially the disappearance of large ponds – is an additional threat.

Experts are "often concerned about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on wildlife," but "It's important in just having these animals around." But toads do have an important role in the food chain, eating almost any small creatures or tiny organisms they can fit in their mouths and in turn feeding a number of predators, such as wildlife. Enhancing conditions for toads – ie creating more ponds, conserving woodland and constructing amphibian passages – "we'll improve them for a whole bunch of additional wildlife."

Historical Importance

Another reason to work to preserve toads around is their "historical significance," adds an specialist. Myths and folklore around toads go back {centuries|hundred