Common toads undertake annual migrations to breeding ponds that bring them into fatal conflict with road traffic — a welfare and conservation problem with practical, community-scale solutions.
Common toad migration brings animals across roads that did not exist when their migration routes were established. Each vehicle strike is a fatal welfare event for an animal undertaking a biological imperative refined over millions of years. The community-scale response — toad patrol volunteers who collect toads in buckets and carry them across roads — is one of the most direct and cost-effective welfare interventions available to citizen volunteers. At sites where patrols operate regularly, toad survival during migration increases dramatically and population trends stabilise.