Can the UK's Toads Survive from Roads and Population Collapse?
It's a Friday night at 7:30, but instead of heading to the pub or watching a film, I've taken a train to a market town in Wiltshire to join volunteers from a amphibian rescue group. These committed people sacrifice their nights to protect the local toad population.
A Worrying Decline in Numbers
The Bufo bufo is becoming increasingly uncommon. A recent study conducted by an amphibian and reptile charity showed that the British common toad numbers have almost halved since the mid-1980s. Observing a creature that has been a stalwart of the British countryside 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 indicates that things are not as they should be."
Toad populations across the UK have declined by almost 50% since the 1980s
The Threat from Roads
Though the study didn't examine the reasons for the drop, traffic certainly plays a part. Calculations suggest that 20 tonnes of toads are killed on UK roads every year – in other words, several hundred thousand. In contrast to frogs, which would probably be happy to mate "with just a small container," toads favor large ponds. Their capacity to stay out of water for longer than frogs means they can travel further to find them – sometimes long distances. They tend to follow their ancestral migration routes – it's common for adult toads to return to their natal pond to mate.
Migration Habits
Appropriately enough, the first toads begin their quest for a partner around Valentine's day, but some move as late as April, until it gets night and travelling after sunset. During that period, toads start moving from where they have been hibernating "all pretty much at the same time."
A local helper, who grew up in the area and has been working to save its toad population since he was a boy, explains that "They've got just one focus: to go and have an orgy." If their path crosses a road, they could be killed by traffic, and that breeding season would never happen – stopping a next generation of toads from being born.
Rescue Groups Throughout the United Kingdom
Finding many of toad carcasses on local roads "resonates deeply with people," and has resulted in the formation of rescue teams across the UK – 274 groups are currently registered with a national initiative. 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 safety solutions, such as road closures and amphibian passages.
Volunteers usually work during the breeding period, when toad crossings are frequent. However, this implies they can miss numbers of young toads, which, having been spawn and then juveniles, exit their ponds over an irregular timetable in late summer. Because of their size – just one or two centimetres wide – "they can get obliterated by car traffic." And as being hit "basically turns them into mush," it's more difficult to get data on them. At least when adult toads are killed, their carcasses can be counted.
Year-Round Work
Unlike most patrols, one local team, who are in their eighth year of functioning, go out throughout the year – not every night, but when weather are warm and wet, or if a member 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 willingly accept to walk up and down their area with me and search for any toads. "If anyone can locate any toads tonight, those two will find one," says the group coordinator, indicating her teenage child and the longtime volunteer. We've been out for two hours without a single toad sighting, 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 adores all things nature-related and has an goal to become a environmentalist, so his mother started to look for things they could do together to protect local wildlife. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the 41-year-old small business owner tells me – so when the group was seeking a fresh coordinator recently, she volunteered for the role.
The youth, too, has been instrumental in the group. A video he created, imploring the local council to block a street through a protected area during migration season, influenced the outcome the group's way. After a year of campaigning, the authority approved an "restricted access" restriction between 5pm and 5am from February through to spring. Most drivers duly avoided the route.
Additional Species and Difficulties
A few vehicles go by when I'm out on patrol and we find some casualties as a consequence – no amphibians, but several crushed salamanders. We spot one live amphibian as well, and the youngster is especially excited to see a daddy longlegs, which dances in his palms. Yet in spite of the team's best efforts to show me a toad, the local population has obviously gone dormant for the colder months. It seems that I wouldn't have had any better success anywhere else in the country – all the patrol groups I reach out to clarify that it's near-impossible at this season.
This team anticipates assisting around ten thousand mature toads over the street
One email I get from a different helper, who has kindly taken the trouble 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 subject line: "None found." However, in late winter, he tells me, the group expects to help approximately 10,000 mature amphibians across the road.
Impact and Limitations
What level of impact can these organizations truly achieve? "The reality that volunteers are performing this consistently on cold, damp and unpleasant evenings is quite extraordinary," says an researcher. "That's something that very much deserves recognition." However, while toad patrols are able to reduce the drop, they cannot prevent it entirely – not least because traffic is just one danger.
Other Dangers
The climate crisis has meant extended spells of dry weather, which create the poor environment for some of the creatures that toads consume, such as invertebrates, while warmer ponds have caused an increase of toxic plants, which can be harmful to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to emerge from their hibernation more often, disrupting the energy conservation vital to their existence. Loss of environment – particularly the loss of large ponds – is another menace.
Researchers are "often concerned about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on wildlife," however "There is a big value in just their presence." But toads do have an important role in the food chain, consuming almost any small creatures or small animals they can fit in their mouths and in turn sustaining a number of predators, such as wildlife. Improving situations for toads – such as creating more ponds, conserving woodland and constructing toad tunnels – "benefits for a wide range of other species."
Historical Importance
An additional motive to work to preserve toads present is their "important cultural value," adds an expert. Myths and folklore around toads go back {centuries|hundred
