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It is Friday night at half past seven, but rather than heading to the pub or watching a film, I've taken a train to a town in the countryside to join volunteers from a toad patrol. These committed people give up their evenings to protect the native amphibian community.

A Worrying Drop in Numbers

The Bufo bufo is growing more uncommon. A recent study conducted by an amphibian and reptile charity showed that the British common toad numbers have dropped by half since the mid-1980s. Observing a species that has been a fixture of the UK landscape in decrease is labeled "concerning" by experts. Toads "don't need very specific conditions" and "should be able to live successfully in the majority of habitats in Britain," so 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 Threat from Traffic

Though the study didn't cover the causes for the drop, traffic is a major factor. Calculations indicate that 20 tons of toads are crushed on UK roads annually – in other words, hundreds of thousands. In contrast to frogs, which would probably be content to mate "if you left out a bucket of water," toads prefer large ponds. Their ability to stay out of water for more time than frogs allows they can journey farther to find them – sometimes long distances. They tend to follow their ancestral migration routes – it's common for adult toads to return to their birth pond to mate.

Breeding Habits

Fittingly, 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 period, toads start moving from wherever they have been overwintering "all pretty much at the same time."

A local helper, who was raised in the region and has been working to save its amphibians since he was a boy, explains that "They've got just one focus: to go and mate." If their route happens to a road, they could all get run over, and that mating period would never happen – stopping a new generation of toads from being produced.

Rescue Groups Throughout the United Kingdom

Seeing hundreds of dead toads on local roads "resonates deeply with people," and has led to the creation of toad patrols throughout the UK – 274 groups are currently registered 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 advocating for other safety solutions, such as road closures and amphibian passages.

Volunteers tend to operate during the migration season, when amphibian movements are more regular. However, this implies they can miss groups of young toads, which, having been eggs and then juveniles, leave their water habitats over an unpredictable schedule in late summer. Because of their small stature – just a couple of cm wide – "they are destroyed 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 carcasses can be counted.

Year-Round Work

Unlike many groups, one local team, who are in their eighth year of functioning, go out throughout the year – not nightly, but when conditions are damp, or if a member has posted about a toad sighting in their group chat. When I ask to join them on duty, they concede it is "not ideal conditions" – winter dormancy has started and it's been a dry day – but a few of the volunteers willingly accept to patrol their route with me and search for any toads. "If anyone can locate any toads tonight, those two will find one," says the group coordinator, pointing to her teenage child and the experienced member. We've been out for 120 minutes without a single toad sighting, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to check under some wood.

Family Participation

The mother and son joined the patrol a while back. The teenager loves all things nature-related and has an ambition to become a environmentalist, so his parent started to look for things they could do together to protect local wildlife. Now she loves it as much as he does, the middle-aged small business owner tells me – so when the team was looking for a fresh coordinator lately, she volunteered for the role.

The youth, too, has played an important role in the organization. A video he created, urging the municipal authority to close a street through a nature reserve during breeding time, influenced the outcome the team's way. After a twelve months of campaigning, the authority approved an "access-only" restriction between 5pm and 5am from late winter through to April. The majority of motorists duly avoided the road.

Other Wildlife and Challenges

A few vehicles go by when I'm out on patrol and we discover some casualties as a result – no amphibians, but several crushed salamanders. We see one live amphibian as well, and the youngster is particularly pleased to see a daddy longlegs, which moves in his palms. Yet in spite of the team's hardest attempts to show me a toad, the local population 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 contact explain that it's very difficult at this time of year.

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

One email I receive from another volunteer, who has kindly taken the trouble to look for toads in a noted location, 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 team expects to help approximately 10,000 mature amphibians over the street.

Impact and Limitations

How much of a difference can these organizations actually make? "The reality that volunteers are doing this consistently on chilly, wet and miserable evenings is quite extraordinary," says an researcher. "This effort that very much should be celebrated." However, while toad patrols are able to reduce the drop, they can't stop it completely – partly since traffic is not the only threat.

Other Dangers

The global warming has resulted in extended spells of drought, which cause the wrong conditions for some of the creatures that toads consume, such as worms and slugs, while warmer ponds have led to an increase of toxic plants, which can be toxic to toads. Milder winters also cause toads to wake up from their dormancy more often, interfering with the energy conservation vital to their life cycle. Loss of environment – particularly the disappearance of large ponds – is an additional threat.

Researchers are "often concerned about overemphasizing practical benefits on wildlife," but "It's important in just having these animals around." But toads do have an significant part in the ecosystem, consuming pretty much 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 building water habitats, conserving woodland and constructing toad tunnels – "benefits for a wide range of other species."

Cultural Importance

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