Green Central: click here to read Times Online's environment blog

Toads are to be given extra help to cross the road amid rising concerns that the amphibians are in sharp decline across the country.

Why the chicken crossed the road may be a source of speculative mirth but for toads it is a simple matter of preservation. Early each year they wake from hibernation and head straight to a pond to mate, crossing busy roads as they travel up to 1½ miles (2.4km) in search of water.

Despite the installation of special toad-friendly crossing points at 670 stretches of road in Britain, the population of the common toad is thought to have slumped in the past ten years. An estimated 20 tonnes of toads are squashed by vehicles every year in Britain, most during the breeding season. Road deaths are considered one of the biggest reasons for the decline.

Volunteers will be monitoring the crossing points as part of “toad patrols”, picking up as many toads as they can find and escorting them across the roads in buckets. They will keep records of the toads they see as part of a new monitoring programme. The data will contribute to a research project led by the Herpetological Conservation Trust (HCT) to assess how many common toads are left in Britain.

Jules Howard, of Froglife, a charity devoted to helping amphibians, said that the project was vital to assessing the toad population. “There is a widespread belief that toads are undergoing a decline. Anecdotal evidence suggests that they have disappeared from ponds throughout the UK but we haven’t got the statistics to prove it.”

Toads prefer to move just after dusk, when road traffic can be at its heaviest. Males try to spy a mate before they reach the ponds. They regard roads as perfect spots to wait because they are flat and often have uninterrupted views.

Chris Gleed-Owen, of the HCT, which runs the national amphibian and reptile recording scheme, said that toads would be monitored because of concern about their numbers. “A lot of people are concerned that in various parts of the country the toad has been declining over the past ten years,” he said. “We are going to help to collate and analyse the data. It will be really important for telling us if the common toad is going up or down nationally.”

At least 1,000 people are expected to take part in toad patrols this year after a campaign by herpetologists.

In a hole . . .

— The first toad crossing was created at Llandudno Wells in 1984. It is used by 4,00 toads annually

— Many toads will breed only in the pond where they hatched

— Toad spawn is laid in strings

— A female can lay 3,000 eggs a night

— Competition for mates is so fierce that “mating balls” are formed as males try to wrestle their way to a female, which often suffocates

— Toads can grow to 11cm (4.3in) in length

— Glands behind the eye produce toxins, making toads taste obnoxious

— Toads are regarded as the gardener’s friend because they eat slugs and insect pests

Source: Froglife

Times recommends

• Buying a wood is an investment
• Biofuels: Fields of dreams
• Commentary: ‘sexed-up’ numbers are not science