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It is Friday night at half past seven, but rather than heading to the pub or relaxing at home, I've taken a train to a town in Wiltshire to meet up with volunteers from a toad patrol. These dedicated individuals sacrifice their nights to protect the native amphibian community.

An Alarming Drop in Population

The common toad is growing more uncommon. A recent research conducted by an wildlife conservation group showed that the British common toad numbers have dropped by half since 1985. Observing a creature that has been a stalwart of the British countryside in decline is described as "worrying" by researchers. Toads "don't need very particular environments" and "ought to live successfully in the majority of areas in the UK," 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 Traffic

Though the research didn't cover the causes for the decline, traffic certainly plays a part. Estimates suggest that 20 tons of toads are killed on British roads annually – that is, hundreds of thousands. Unlike frogs, which might be content to mate "if you left out a bucket of water," toads prefer big bodies of water. Their capacity to stay out of water for longer than frogs means they can travel further to find them – often long distances. They tend to follow their ancestral migration routes – it's common for mature amphibians to return to their birth pond to mate.

Migration Patterns

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

One volunteer, who grew up in the area and has been working to save its toad population since he was a child, explains that "Their sole purpose: to go and mate." 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 produced.

Rescue Groups Across the UK

Finding many of dead toads on nearby streets "resonates deeply with people," and has resulted in the formation of rescue teams throughout the UK – 274 groups are officially listed with a national initiative. These groups pick up toads and carry them over streets in buckets, as well as recording the number of toads they find and advocating for other safety solutions, such as blocked roads and amphibian passages.

Volunteers usually work during the migration season, when toad crossings are frequent. However, this implies they can miss groups of toadlets, which, having existed as eggs and then juveniles, exit their ponds over an unpredictable schedule in late summer. Because of their size – just a couple of cm wide – "they can get obliterated by vehicles." And as being run over "essentially crushes them," it's harder to collect information on them. At least when mature amphibians are killed, their remains can be counted.

Annual Efforts

Unlike many groups, one local team, who are in their eighth year of functioning, go out year-round – not every night, but when conditions are warm and wet, or if a member has reported about a toad sighting in their group chat. When I request to accompany them on patrol, they concede it is "not a toady night" – toad hibernation season has started and it's been a arid period – but a few of the helpers willingly accept to patrol their route with me and see what we can find. "If anyone can locate any toads tonight, that pair will find one," says the group coordinator, pointing to her 14-year-old son and the longtime volunteer. We've been out for two hours without a single toad sighting, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to check under some logs.

Family Involvement

The family duo became part of the group a year and a half ago. The youngster adores all things nature-related and has an goal to become a conservationist, so his parent started to search for activities they could do jointly to protect native animals. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the 41-year-old entrepreneur tells me – so when the team was looking for a new manager lately, she volunteered for the role.

The teenager, too, has played an important role in the organization. A clip he made, urging the local council to block a street through a nature reserve during migration season, influenced the outcome the group's way. After a year of campaigning, the council approved an "restricted access" rule between 5pm and 5am from late winter through to spring. The majority of motorists duly avoided the road.

Additional Species and Challenges

A few cars go by when I'm out on patrol and we discover some victims as a result – no toads, but three squashed newts. We see one live amphibian as well, and the youngster is especially excited to see a harvestman, 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 winter. It seems that I couldn't have found any more luck anywhere else in the country – all the patrol groups I contact explain that it's near-impossible at this time of year.

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

A message I receive from a different helper, who has kindly made the effort to look for toads in a famous site, thought to be the biggest tracked toad group in the UK, reaches me with the subject line: "No toads." However, in late winter, he tells me, the team expects to help approximately 10,000 adult toads across the road.

Effectiveness and Challenges

How much of a difference can these groups truly achieve? "The fact that volunteers are doing this consistently on chilly, wet and miserable late nights is remarkable," says an expert. "That's something that very much deserves recognition." However, while toad patrols are able to reduce the drop, they can't stop it completely – not least because traffic is not the only threat.

Additional Threats

The global warming has resulted in extended spells of dry weather, which create the poor environment for some of the animals that toads consume, such as worms and slugs, while warmer ponds have caused an rise of blue-green algae, which can be harmful to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to wake up from their hibernation more frequently, interfering with the energy conservation vital to their life cycle. Loss of environment – especially the disappearance of big water bodies – is an additional threat.

Researchers are "often concerned about overemphasizing practical benefits on wildlife," but "There is a big value in just having these animals around." But toads do have an significant part in the food chain, consuming almost any small creatures or tiny organisms they can fit in their mouths and in turn sustaining a variety of predators, such as wildlife. Improving situations for toads – ie building water habitats, protecting forests and constructing amphibian passages – "benefits for a wide range of other species."

Historical Importance

An additional motive to try to keep toads around is their "important cultural value," notes an expert. Legends and tales around toads go back {centuries|hundred