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It is Friday night at half past seven, but instead of heading to the pub or relaxing at home, I've taken a train to a town in the countryside to join volunteers from a amphibian rescue group. These dedicated individuals sacrifice their evenings to protect the native amphibian community.

A Worrying Decline in Numbers

The Bufo bufo is growing more uncommon. A latest study led by an amphibian and reptile charity revealed 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 decline is labeled "worrying" by experts. Toads "don't require very particular environments" and "ought to live successfully in the majority of habitats in the UK," so if even they are struggling to persist, "it indicates that the ecosystem is unbalanced."

The UK toad population has almost halved since 1985

The Threat from Roads

Though the study didn't cover the causes for the drop, traffic is a major factor. Calculations indicate that 20 tonnes of toads are crushed on British roads every year – in other words, hundreds of thousands. In contrast to frogs, which might be happy to mate "if you left out a small container," toads prefer large ponds. Their ability to remain away from water for more time than frogs means they can travel further to find them – often hundreds of metres. They tend to follow their ancestral migration routes – it's common for mature amphibians to go back to their natal pond to mate.

Migration Habits

Fittingly, the first toads begin their quest for a mate around February 14th, but some move as far as April, until it gets dark and moving after sunset. During that period, toads start moving from where they have been overwintering "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 child, explains that "Their sole purpose: to go and have an orgy." If their path happens to a road, they could be killed by traffic, and that breeding season would be lost – stopping a new generation of toads from being born.

Toad Patrols Throughout the UK

Seeing hundreds of dead toads on local roads "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has led to the creation of toad patrols throughout the UK – 274 groups are officially listed with a national initiative. These groups collect toads and transport them over streets in containers, as well as recording the quantity of toads they find and lobbying for other safety solutions, such as road closures and underground wildlife tunnels.

Volunteers usually work during the migration season, when toad crossings are frequent. However, this implies they can overlook groups of young toads, which, having existed as spawn and then juveniles, leave their water habitats over an irregular timetable in late summer. Because of their size – just one or two centimetres wide – "they can get obliterated by vehicles." And as being run over "basically turns them into mush," it's more difficult to collect information on them. At least when mature amphibians are lost, their carcasses can be counted.

Annual Work

Unlike most patrols, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth year of operating, go out throughout the year – not nightly, but when 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 admit it is "not a toady night" – winter dormancy has started and it's been a dry day – but several of the helpers gamely agree to walk up and down their route with me and search for any toads. "Should anyone can locate any toads tonight, that pair will find one," says the group coordinator, indicating her teenage child and the experienced member. We've been out for two hours without a glimpse of any amphibians, and now they have climbed over a wire barrier to check under some wood.

Community Involvement

The family duo joined 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 search for activities they could do together to help local wildlife. Now she loves it as much as he does, the 41-year-old entrepreneur 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 municipal authority to block a road through a nature reserve during breeding time, swung the decision the group's way. After a twelve months of campaigning, the council approved an "access-only" rule between 5pm and 5am from February through to spring. Most drivers duly avoided the route.

Other Wildlife and Challenges

Several vehicles go past when I'm out on patrol and we find some casualties as a consequence – no amphibians, but three squashed newts. We see one live amphibian as well, and the teenager is especially excited to see a daddy longlegs, which moves in his hands. Yet in spite of the group's hardest attempts to let me see a toad, the native community has obviously gone dormant for the colder months. It seems that I couldn't have found any better success anywhere else in the country – all the patrol groups I reach out to clarify that it's near-impossible at this time of year.

They project rescuing nearly 10,000 grown amphibians during migration

One email I get from a different helper, who has generously made the effort to look for toads in a famous site, thought to be the biggest tracked toad population in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the subject line: "No toads." However, in February and March, he tells me, the group plans to assist approximately ten thousand mature amphibians across the road.

Impact and Limitations

What level of impact can these groups truly achieve? "The fact that people are doing this consistently on cold, damp and unpleasant late nights is quite extraordinary," says an researcher. "This effort that very much deserves recognition." However, while rescue teams are able to slow the decline, they cannot prevent it entirely – not least because vehicles is not the only threat.

Other Dangers

The global warming has meant extended spells of dry weather, which create the wrong conditions for some of the creatures that toads eat, such as invertebrates, while higher water temperatures have caused an rise of blue-green algae, which can be toxic to toads. Milder winters also lead toads to emerge from their hibernation more often, interfering with the energy conservation vital to their existence. Loss of environment – particularly the disappearance of large ponds – is another menace.

Researchers are "often concerned about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on biodiversity," however "There is a big value in just their presence." But toads do have an important role in the ecosystem, consuming almost any invertebrates or tiny organisms they can fit in their mouths and in turn sustaining a number of predators, such as wildlife. Improving situations for toads – ie creating more ponds, conserving woodland and constructing toad tunnels – "benefits for a wide range of other species."

Cultural Significance

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