Where do common toads go?

Life in the ponds

Common toads (Bufo bufo) are found across mainland Britain and have adapted to living in rural and suburban areas. Each spring, they return to their ancestral ponds to breed, gathering in lakes, gravel pits, reservoirs, ponds, and ditches. After around 16 weeks, tadpoles mature into tiny toadlets and begin their own journeys away from their spawning ground. If you’re lucky, you might spot them in May, emerging in large numbers after a rainfall. 

But life isn’t easy for young toads and, sadly, toad numbers are thought to be declining rapidly. Road traffic, climate change, habitat loss and human development all threaten their survival. These threats are aggravated by our lack of understanding where and why amphibians move and settle once they’ve successfully bred. To address this, our new intern Jasmine Gandy is investigating how and where common toads and great crested newts disperse, after they’ve had their young.   

Supervised by Amphibian and Reptile Groups of the UK (ARG UK), Jasmine is carrying out field surveys around ponds in Oxford, including the Trap Grounds and Hinksey Heights Nature Reserves, and the University Parks. To successfully track the movements of newly emerged toadlets, she’s putting out artificial refuges – safe shelters that can be checked for amphibians. Jasmine will also use dataloggers, devices that measure humidity and temperature, to understand what the important environmental factors are that influence the animals. Comparing these sites will help reveal which habitats young toads choose and what environmental pressures they face at this vulnerable life stage.  

Using citizen science for conservation

Jasmine will also analyse records collected by the public for Travelling Toadlets Record Pool – a citizen science initiative that aims to gather observations of reptiles and amphibians in the UK. By examining when and where sightings of common toads were submitted, Jasmine will discover whether dispersal occurs during fixed time periods or if the toadlets wait for an optimal weather window before venturing out. This analysis will also explore how factors such as temperature and rainfall influence their emergence patterns. To dig deeper, Jasmine will also analyse responses to a new questionnaire being sent to toad patrollers across the UK, helping to build a fuller picture of how and when young toads move. This research addresses a little-known but critical stage in the amphibians’ life cycle, when tiny toadlets leave the safety of their ponds and face their highest risk of death.  

Header image credit Julian Smart