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It is a Friday night at 7:30, but instead of going out or relaxing at home, I've caught a train to a market town in the countryside to meet up with local helpers from a amphibian rescue group. These committed people give up their nights to protect the local toad population.

A Worrying Decline in Numbers

The Bufo bufo is growing more uncommon. A recent study led by an wildlife conservation group showed that the UK toad population have almost halved since 1985. Observing a species that has been a stalwart of the UK landscape in decline is labeled "worrying" by experts. Toads "don't need very specific conditions" and "should be able to live successfully in the majority of areas in Britain," meaning 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 Roads

Though the study didn't cover the causes for the drop, cars certainly plays a part. Calculations suggest that 20 tons of toads are crushed on British roads annually – in other words, several hundred thousand. In contrast to frogs, which would probably be happy to mate "if you left out a small container," toads favor big bodies of water. Their ability to remain away from water for longer than frogs allows they can travel further to find them – sometimes long distances. They usually follow their traditional paths – it's common for mature amphibians to return to their birth pond to mate.

Migration Patterns

Appropriately enough, 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 travelling through the night. During that time, toads start moving from wherever they have been hibernating "almost simultaneously."

One volunteer, who was raised in the area and has been working to save its toad population since he was a boy, notes that "Their sole purpose: to go and have an orgy." If their path happens to a road, they could all get run over, and that mating period would never happen – preventing a next generation of toads from being born.

Toad Patrols Across the United Kingdom

Seeing many 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 national initiative. These teams collect toads and transport them over streets in containers, as well as recording the quantity of toads they find and lobbying for other protection measures, such as blocked roads and underground wildlife tunnels.

Patrols usually work during the breeding period, when amphibian movements are more regular. However, this means they can miss numbers of young toads, which, having existed as eggs and then tadpoles, leave their water habitats over an unpredictable schedule in late summer. Because of their small stature – just one or two centimetres wide – "they are destroyed by car traffic." And as being run over "essentially crushes them," it's more difficult to get data on them. At least when mature amphibians are lost, their carcasses can be tallied.

Year-Round Efforts

Unlike most patrols, one local team, who are in their eighth season of operating, go out year-round – not nightly, but when weather are damp, or if a member has posted about a toad sighting in their group chat. When I ask to join them on patrol, they admit it is "not ideal conditions" – toad hibernation season has started and it's been a arid period – but several of the helpers willingly accept to walk up and down their area with me and search for any toads. "Should 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 glimpse of any amphibians, and now they have scaled a wire barrier to check under some wood.

Family Involvement

The mother and son became part of the patrol a year and a half ago. The teenager loves all things nature-related and has an ambition to become a environmentalist, so his mother started to look for activities they could do together to protect native animals. Now she loves it as much as he does, the middle-aged small business owner tells me – so when the team was seeking a fresh coordinator recently, she decided to step up.

The teenager, 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, swung the decision the group's way. After a twelve months of lobbying, the council agreed to an "access-only" restriction between 5pm and 5am from late winter through to April. The majority of motorists duly avoided the route.

Additional Species and Difficulties

Several vehicles go by when I'm out on duty and we discover some casualties as a consequence – no amphibians, but several crushed salamanders. We spot one live amphibian as well, and the youngster is particularly pleased to see a harvestman, which moves in his palms. Yet in spite of the team's best efforts to show me a toad, the native community has clearly gone dormant for the winter. It appears that I wouldn't have had any more luck elsewhere in the country – all the rescue teams I contact explain that it's very difficult at this season.

This team anticipates assisting around ten thousand mature toads over the street

A message I get from a different helper, who has kindly made the effort to check for toads in a famous site, considered the largest accurately monitored toad group in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the subject line: "None found." However, in February and March, he tells me, the team expects to help around ten thousand adult toads across the road.

Impact and Limitations

What level of impact can these organizations truly achieve? "The reality that volunteers are doing this regularly on chilly, wet and miserable evenings is quite extraordinary," says an researcher. "That's something that very much deserves recognition." However, while toad patrols are able to slow the decline, they can't stop it completely – not least because traffic is not the only threat.

Additional Threats

The global warming has resulted in longer periods of drought, which create the wrong conditions for some of the animals that toads consume, such as worms and slugs, while higher water temperatures have caused an rise of blue-green algae, which can be harmful to toads. Milder winters also lead toads to wake up from their hibernation more frequently, disrupting the energy conservation vital to their life cycle. Habitat destruction – especially the loss of large ponds – is an additional threat.

Experts are "always a bit worried about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on biodiversity," but "It's important in just having these animals around." But toads play an important role in the ecosystem, consuming pretty much any invertebrates or small animals they can swallow and in turn feeding a variety of birds and mammals, such as wildlife. Enhancing situations for toads – ie building water habitats, conserving woodland and constructing amphibian passages – "we'll improve them for a wide range of additional wildlife."

Historical Importance

An additional motive to try to keep toads present is their "important cultural value," adds an specialist. Myths and folklore around toads go back {centuries|hundred