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It is Friday night at half past seven, but rather than going out or watching a film, I've caught a train to a market town in Wiltshire to join volunteers from a amphibian rescue group. These committed people give up their nights to protect the native amphibian community.

A Worrying Drop in Numbers

The common toad is growing more uncommon. A latest research conducted by an wildlife conservation group revealed that the UK toad population have dropped by half since 1985. Observing a species that has been a stalwart of the British countryside in decline is labeled "worrying" by researchers. Toads "don't need very specific conditions" and "should be able to live successfully in most of habitats in Britain," so if even they are not managing to survive, "it kind of suggests that things are not as they should be."

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

The Threat from Traffic

Though the research didn't examine the reasons for the drop, traffic is a major factor. Calculations indicate that 20 tons 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 "with just a bucket of water," toads favor large ponds. Their capacity to remain away from water for longer than frogs allows they can travel further to find them – often hundreds of metres. They usually follow their traditional paths – it's common for adult toads to return to their birth pond to mate.

Breeding Habits

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

A local helper, who grew up in the region and has been working to save its amphibians since he was a child, notes that "Their sole purpose: to go and have an orgy." If their route happens to a road, they could all get run over, and that mating period would never happen – stopping a next generation of toads from being born.

Toad Patrols Across the United Kingdom

Finding hundreds of toad carcasses on nearby streets "inherently strikes a chord with people," and has resulted in the formation of toad patrols throughout the UK – hundreds of organizations are officially listed with a countrywide program. These teams collect toads and carry them over streets in buckets, as well as recording the quantity of toads they find and lobbying for other protection measures, such as road closures and amphibian passages.

Volunteers usually work during the migration season, when toad crossings are more regular. However, this implies they can overlook groups of young toads, which, having been spawn and then tadpoles, leave their water habitats over an unpredictable schedule in the end of summer. Because of their small stature – just a couple of cm wide – "they are destroyed by vehicles." And as being run over "essentially crushes them," it's harder to get data on them. At least when adult toads are lost, their remains can be counted.

Year-Round Efforts

In contrast to most patrols, one local team, who are in their eighth season of operating, go out year-round – not nightly, but when conditions are damp, or if a member has posted about a amphibian spotting in their group chat. When I ask to join them on patrol, they concede it is "not a toady night" – winter dormancy has started and it's been a arid period – but several 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 spot one," says the group coordinator, pointing to her 14-year-old son and the longtime volunteer. After for 120 minutes without a glimpse of any amphibians, and now they have climbed over a wire barrier to inspect beneath some wood.

Community Participation

The mother and son became part of the group a while back. 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 jointly 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 looking for a new manager recently, she decided to step up.

The teenager, too, has played an important role in the group. A video he created, urging the local council to block a road through a nature reserve during migration season, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a year of lobbying, the council agreed to an "restricted access" restriction between evening and morning from February through to April. The majority of motorists duly avoided the road.

Other Wildlife and Challenges

Several vehicles go by when I'm out on patrol and we find some casualties as a consequence – no toads, but three squashed newts. We see one living newt 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 best efforts to let me see a toad, the local population has obviously gone dormant for the colder months. It seems that I wouldn't have had any better success elsewhere in the country – all the rescue teams I contact explain that it's very difficult at this time of year.

They project rescuing nearly 10,000 grown amphibians during migration

One email I receive from another volunteer, who has kindly taken the trouble to look for toads in a famous site, considered the largest accurately monitored toad population in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the subject line: "No toads." However, in February and March, he informs me, the team expects to help around ten thousand mature amphibians across the road.

Impact and Limitations

What level of impact can these groups truly achieve? "The fact that volunteers are performing this regularly on chilly, wet and miserable late nights is remarkable," says an expert. "This effort that very much deserves recognition." However, while toad patrols are able to slow the decline, they cannot prevent it entirely – not least because vehicles is just one danger.

Other Dangers

The climate crisis has meant longer periods of drought, which create the poor environment for some of the animals that toads consume, such as invertebrates, while higher water temperatures have led to an increase of toxic plants, which can be toxic to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to emerge from their dormancy more often, disrupting the energy conservation crucial to their life cycle. Loss of environment – especially the loss of large ponds – is another menace.

Experts are "always a bit worried about overemphasizing practical benefits on biodiversity," but "There is a big value in just having these animals around." But toads play an important role in the food chain, eating pretty much any invertebrates or small animals they can fit in their mouths and in turn sustaining a variety of birds and mammals, such as hedgehogs and otters. Enhancing situations for toads – ie building water habitats, conserving woodland and constructing toad tunnels – "we'll improve them for a whole bunch of additional wildlife."

Historical Significance

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