Campaign to help toads this Spring

Toads are becoming increasingly rare and in a bid to ensure they don't disappear completely, the Arun and Rother Connections project is looking for volunteers to help with their Toad Watch project this Spring.

A training workshop is being held today in Midhurst in collaboration with the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust. The free raining will be provided on a number of aspects of toad conservation.

Common toads are very particular about their breeding sites, often returning to ancestral breeding ponds each year from hibernation areas. They will follow the same migratory route, often moving as an entire colony, which will inevitably lead to having to cross roads.

They move on damp mild nights from February to April and in some populations this can mean over 1000 toads moving over a very short period of time. With traffic volumes increasing it is contributing to the decline in toad numbers, with hundreds of toads being killed over the period of a few nights and estimates of 20 tonnes of toads dying on our roads each year. Some surveys indicate as high as 10% adult population loss per year from roads.