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It's Friday night at half past seven, but instead of heading to the pub or relaxing at home, I've caught a train to a town in Wiltshire to meet up with local helpers from a amphibian rescue group. These committed people give up their evenings to protect the local toad population.

An Alarming Decline in Population

The common toad is growing more uncommon. A recent research led by an wildlife conservation group showed that the UK toad population have almost halved since the mid-1980s. Observing a species that has been a fixture of the UK landscape 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 habitats in the UK," meaning if even they are struggling to persist, "it indicates that the ecosystem is unbalanced."

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

The Danger from Traffic

Though the research didn't examine the reasons for the drop, cars certainly plays a part. Calculations indicate that 20 tons of toads are crushed on UK roads every year – that is, several hundred thousand. 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 longer than frogs allows they can journey farther to reach them – often long distances. They usually follow their ancestral migration routes – it's typical for mature amphibians to go back to their birth pond to mate.

Breeding Patterns

Fittingly, the first toads start their journey for a partner around Valentine's day, but others travel as far as April, waiting until it gets dark and travelling after sunset. During that period, toads begin migrating from wherever they have been hibernating "all pretty much at the same time."

One volunteer, who was raised in the region and has been trying to protect its toad population 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 street, they could be killed by traffic, and that breeding season would never happen – preventing a next generation of toads from being born.

Toad Patrols Throughout the United Kingdom

Seeing hundreds of toad carcasses on local roads "resonates deeply with people," and has led to the formation of toad patrols throughout the UK – 274 groups are currently registered with a countrywide program. These teams collect toads and transport them over streets in buckets, as well as recording the quantity of toads they encounter and lobbying for other protection measures, such as road closures and amphibian passages.

Volunteers usually work during the breeding period, when amphibian movements are frequent. However, this implies they can miss numbers of young toads, which, having existed as spawn and then tadpoles, exit their water habitats over an unpredictable schedule in the end of summer. Because of their size – just one or two centimetres wide – "they can get obliterated by car traffic." And as being run over "essentially crushes them," it's harder to get data on them. At least when adult toads are killed, their remains can be counted.

Annual Efforts

Unlike most patrols, one local team, who are in their eighth year of operating, go out throughout the year – not nightly, but when weather are damp, or if someone has posted about a amphibian spotting in their group chat. When I ask to join them on duty, they admit it is "not a toady night" – toad hibernation season has begun and it's been a arid period – but a few of the volunteers willingly accept to patrol their area with me and search for any toads. "If anyone can find any toads tonight, that pair will spot one," says the patrol manager, indicating her 14-year-old son and the longtime volunteer. After for two hours without a single toad sighting, and now they have climbed over a wire barrier to inspect beneath some logs.

Community Involvement

The family duo joined the group a year and a half ago. The teenager adores all things wildlife and has an goal to become a environmentalist, so his parent started to look for activities they could do together to protect local wildlife. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the middle-aged small business owner explains – so when the group was seeking a new manager lately, she volunteered for the role.

The teenager, too, has played an important role in the organization. A video he made, urging the municipal authority to block a road through a nature reserve during migration season, influenced the outcome the group's way. After a twelve months of campaigning, the council agreed to an "access-only" rule between evening and morning from late winter through to spring. The majority of motorists duly avoided the road.

Additional Species and Challenges

Several vehicles go by when I'm out on duty and we find some victims as a consequence – no toads, but several crushed salamanders. We spot one living newt as well, and the teenager is especially excited to see a harvestman, which moves in his palms. Yet in spite of the group's best efforts to let me see a toad, the local population has obviously gone dormant for the colder months. It appears that I wouldn't have had any more luck anywhere else in the country – all the patrol groups I reach out to explain 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 a different helper, who has kindly made the effort to check for toads in a noted location, thought to be the largest accurately monitored toad group in the UK, reaches me with the subject line: "None found." However, in February and March, he informs me, the team expects to help around 10,000 mature amphibians across the road.

Effectiveness and Limitations

How much of a difference can these organizations actually make? "The reality that volunteers are performing this consistently on cold, damp and unpleasant late nights is remarkable," says an researcher. "This effort that very much should be celebrated." However, while rescue teams are able to slow the decline, they cannot prevent it entirely – not least because traffic is not the only threat.

Additional Threats

The climate crisis has resulted in extended spells of dry weather, which cause the wrong conditions for some of the animals that toads eat, such as worms and slugs, while warmer ponds have led to an increase of blue-green algae, which can be harmful to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to wake up from their dormancy more often, disrupting the energy conservation crucial to their existence. Habitat destruction – particularly the loss of big water bodies – is another menace.

Researchers are "always a bit worried about overemphasizing practical benefits on biodiversity," but "It's important in just their presence." 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 feeding a number of predators, such as hedgehogs and otters. Improving conditions for toads – ie building water habitats, conserving woodland and constructing toad tunnels – "we'll improve them for a whole bunch of other species."

Historical Importance

Another reason to work to preserve toads around is their "important cultural value," adds an expert. Legends and tales around toads go back {centuries|hundred