Volunteers Take to the Streets to Protect Migrating Toads

It’s 7.30pm on a Friday, and instead of heading to the pub or catching a film, I’m stepping off a train in a quiet Wiltshire town to join the Warminster toad patrol – one of hundreds of volunteer groups across the UK giving up their evenings to help local toads survive their annual migration.

The common toad (Bufo bufo), once widespread and iconic in British folklore, has been in steep decline. A recent Froglife-led study shows the UK population has dropped by nearly half since 1985, a fall Dr Silviu Petrovan of the University of Cambridge calls “deeply concerning.”

Dr Silviu Petrovan, senior researcher at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the study. Toads “don’t require very specific conditions” and “should be able to live quite well in most of the habitats in Britain,” he says – so if even they are not managing to survive, “it kind of suggests that things are not as they should be”.

Toad Numbers Plummeting Across the UK

The study did not determine all causes, but one factor is clear: traffic. Froglife estimates that around 20 tonnes of toads – several hundred thousand animals – are killed on roads each year. Unlike frogs, which breed almost anywhere, toads prefer large ponds and often travel long distances from woodland hibernation sites, typically following ancestral routes back to the ponds where they were born.

Migration begins around Valentine’s Day and continues into April, with thousands of toads moving under cover of darkness on warm, wet nights. If their path crosses a road, entire breeding populations can be wiped out in a single season.

How UK Toad Patrols Work

The sight of hundreds of squashed toads has galvanised communities, leading to 274 patrol groups registered under Froglife’s Toads on Roads scheme. Volunteers collect toads in buckets and carry them safely across roads while keeping detailed records of live and dead animals encountered. Many also lobby for road closures or wildlife tunnels.

Most groups operate only during the main migration period, but in the Warminster toad patrol, volunteers patrol year-round whenever weather conditions suggest amphibians might be on the move. When I join them, it’s officially “not a toady night” – dry and cool – yet the team still combs their route, determined to check every likely hiding place.

A Community Effort Led by Passionate Volunteers

Patrol manager Ria Painter-Coates and her 14-year-old son Dexter joined the group in 2023. Dexter, a budding conservationist, has already made a major impact: a video he filmed helped persuade the local council to impose night-time access restrictions on a key migration route between February and April.

During my outing we spot casualties – three newts flattened by passing cars – and one surviving newt. The toads, however, are deep in hibernation. This matches reports from patrols nationwide: at this time of year, sightings are rare.

In peak season, though, the numbers are staggering. A volunteer from the Henley patrol tells me they expect to help around 10,000 adult toads across roads each spring at Oaken Grove, one of the UK’s largest monitored populations.

Can Toad Patrols Reverse the Decline?

While patrols save thousands of animals each year, they can only slow the overall decline. Toads face growing threats beyond traffic:

• Climate change, bringing longer dry spells and warmer winters, disrupts food availability and hibernation patterns.

• Toxic blue-green algae thrives in warmer ponds.

• Habitat loss, particularly the disappearance of large ponds, reduces breeding opportunities.

Petrovan stresses that toads are valuable not only ecologically – eating insects and feeding mammals such as hedgehogs and otters – but culturally. Myths linking toads to magic, healing, and folklore span centuries, and literary toads from Orwell’s essays to The Wind in the Willows continue to enchant readers.

“The fact that people are doing this consistently on cold, damp and unpleasant late nights is quite extraordinary,” Petrovan says. “That’s something that very much should be celebrated.”

Tunnels and Habitat Restoration: The Future of Toad Conservation

Wildlife tunnels under roads could offer a long-term solution to migration deaths, but results have been mixed. Some Swiss tunnels have been effective, while others – such as those built in Powys in 2010 – were rarely used. Petrovan argues that more research is needed to understand what designs and locations actually work.

Improving habitats – restoring ponds, managing woodland, and maintaining “toad corridors” – would benefit countless other species too.

A Young Generation Needed to Keep the Tradition Alive

Back in Warminster, Dexter tells me he worries about the future of toad conservation. Few young people share his passion, and much of the knowledge comes from older generations of naturalists.

“There are so many other things to distract people,” he says. “Unless we get more people actively involved, it’s going to be hard.”

As Britain’s toad population continues to decline, the dedication of these patrols – from seasoned volunteers to young enthusiasts – may be the only thing standing between an ancient species and further loss.

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At Natural World Fund, we are passionate about restoring habitats in the UK to halt the decline in our wildlife.