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It is Friday night at half past seven, but rather than going out or watching a film, I've taken a train to a market town in Wiltshire to meet up with volunteers from a toad patrol. These committed people give up their evenings to protect the local toad population.

An Alarming Decline in Numbers

The Bufo bufo is becoming increasingly rare. A recent research conducted by an wildlife conservation group revealed that the British common toad numbers have almost halved since 1985. Observing a species that has been a fixture of the UK landscape in decrease is described as "worrying" by researchers. Toads "don't require very specific conditions" and "should be able to live quite well in the majority of habitats in the UK," so if even they are struggling to persist, "it indicates that things are not as they should be."

Toad populations across the UK have declined by almost 50% since the 1980s

The Danger from Traffic

Though the research didn't examine the reasons for the decline, traffic certainly plays a part. Estimates indicate that 20 tonnes of toads are killed on British roads annually – in other words, hundreds of thousands. Unlike frogs, which might be happy to mate "if you left out a small container," toads favor large ponds. Their ability to remain away from water for more time than frogs means they can travel further to reach them – often hundreds of metres. They tend to follow their traditional paths – it's common for mature amphibians to return to their natal pond to mate.

Migration Habits

Appropriately enough, the first toads begin their quest for a mate around Valentine's day, but some move as late as spring, until it gets dark and moving after sunset. During that period, toads start moving from wherever they have been overwintering "almost simultaneously."

One volunteer, who grew up in the region and has been trying to protect its toad population since he was a child, explains that "They've got just one focus: to go and have an orgy." If their path happens to a street, they could be killed by traffic, and that breeding season would be lost – stopping a next generation of toads from being born.

Rescue Groups Throughout the UK

Finding hundreds of toad carcasses on nearby streets "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has resulted in the formation of rescue teams throughout the UK – 274 groups are officially listed with a countrywide program. These groups pick up toads and transport them over streets in containers, as well as counting the number of toads they encounter and advocating for other safety solutions, such as blocked roads and underground wildlife tunnels.

Patrols tend to operate during the breeding period, when amphibian movements are frequent. However, this implies they can overlook numbers of toadlets, which, having existed as spawn and then juveniles, 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 run over "essentially crushes them," it's more difficult to collect information on them. At least when mature amphibians are killed, their carcasses can be tallied.

Annual Efforts

Unlike many groups, one local team, who are in their eighth year of operating, go out throughout the year – not every night, but whenever conditions are warm and wet, or if a member has reported about a amphibian spotting in their messaging app. When I ask to join them on patrol, they concede it is "not ideal conditions" – winter dormancy has begun and it's been a dry day – but a few of the volunteers gamely agree to walk up and down their route with me and search for any toads. "If anyone can locate any toads tonight, that pair will find one," says the patrol manager, pointing to her teenage child and the experienced member. After for 120 minutes without a glimpse of any amphibians, and now they have climbed over a wire barrier to inspect beneath some logs.

Community Involvement

The family duo became part of the patrol a year and a half ago. The youngster loves all things nature-related and has an goal to become a conservationist, so his mother started to look for things they could do jointly to help local wildlife. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the middle-aged entrepreneur tells me – so when the team was seeking a fresh coordinator lately, she volunteered for the role.

The teenager, too, has been instrumental in the group. A video he created, urging the municipal authority to block a road through a protected area during migration season, influenced the outcome the group's way. After a year of lobbying, the council agreed to an "access-only" restriction between 5pm and 5am from February through to spring. Most drivers duly avoided the route.

Other Wildlife and Challenges

A few cars 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 live amphibian as well, and the youngster is especially excited to see a daddy longlegs, which moves in his palms. Yet in spite of the team's hardest attempts to let me see a toad, the local population has clearly settled down for the colder months. It seems that I wouldn't have had any better success anywhere else in the nation – all the patrol groups I reach out to clarify that it's very difficult at this time of year.

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

A message I get from another volunteer, who has generously made the effort to look for toads in a noted location, thought to be the largest accurately monitored toad population in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the title: "No toads." However, in late winter, he tells me, the group expects to help approximately ten thousand mature amphibians across the road.

Impact and Challenges

How much of a difference can these organizations actually make? "The reality that volunteers are performing this regularly on cold, damp and unpleasant late nights is remarkable," says an researcher. "That's something that very much should be celebrated." However, while toad patrols are able to reduce the drop, they cannot prevent it entirely – partly since traffic is not the only threat.

Additional Threats

The global warming has resulted in longer periods of dry weather, which create the poor environment for some of the creatures that toads consume, such as invertebrates, while higher water temperatures have caused an increase of blue-green algae, which can be toxic to toads. Milder winters also lead toads to wake up from their dormancy more frequently, interfering with the resource preservation crucial to their life cycle. Habitat destruction – particularly the disappearance of large ponds – is another menace.

Experts are "always a bit worried about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on biodiversity," but "There is a big value in just their presence." But toads play an significant part in the food chain, eating pretty much any invertebrates or small animals they can swallow and in turn sustaining a variety of predators, such as hedgehogs and otters. Enhancing conditions for toads – ie building water habitats, protecting forests and installing amphibian passages – "we'll improve them for a wide range of other species."

Cultural Significance

An additional motive to work to preserve toads present is their "important cultural value," notes an specialist. Myths and folklore around toads date back {centuries|hundred