page_title: Common toad
section_title: Roadkill
hierarchical_section_title: Common toad / Conservation / Roadkill
caption_attribution_description: English: A "tunnel" below a street to prevent migrating amphibians (e.g. toads like Bufo bufo) from being killed. Photo made in northern Germany in March 2003 Deutsch: Ein Kleintierdurchlass unter einer Bundesstraße, zusammen mit Leitblechen. Damit sollen wandernde Amphibien wie die Erdkröte (Bufo bufo) vor dem Straßentod bewahrt werden. Aufnahme aus Norddeutschland, März 2003.
context_page_description: The common toad, European toad, or in Anglophone parts of Europe, simply the toad, is an amphibian found throughout most of Europe, in the western part of North Asia, and in a small portion of Northwest Africa. It is one of a group of closely related animals that are descended from a common ancestral line of toads and which form a species complex. The toad is an inconspicuous animal as it usually lies hidden during the day. It becomes active at dusk and spends the night hunting for the invertebrates on which it feeds. It moves with a slow, ungainly walk or short jumps, and has greyish-brown skin covered with wart-like lumps.
  Although toads are usually solitary animals, in the breeding season, large numbers of toads converge on certain breeding ponds, where the males compete to mate with the females. Eggs are laid in gelatinous strings in the water and later hatch out into tadpoles. After several months of growth and development, these sprout limbs and undergo metamorphosis into tiny toads. The juveniles emerge from the water and remain largely terrestrial for the rest of their lives.
context_section_description: Many toads are killed by traffic while migrating to their breeding grounds. In Europe they have the highest rate of mortality from roadkill among amphibians. Many of the deaths take place on stretches of road where streams flow underneath showing that migration routes often follow water courses. In some places in Germany,  Belgium,  Great Britain, Northern Italy and Poland, special tunnels have been constructed so that toads can cross under roads in safety. In other places, local wildlife groups run "toad patrols", carrying the amphibians across roads at busy crossing points in buckets. The toads start moving at dusk and for them to travel far, the temperature needs to remain above 5 °C (41 °F). On a warm wet night they may continue moving all night but if it cools down, they may stop earlier. An estimate was made of the significance of roadkill in toad populations in the Netherlands. The number of females killed in the spring migration on a quiet country road (ten vehicles per hour) was compared with the number of strings of eggs laid in nearby fens. A 30% mortality rate was found, with the rate for deaths among males likely to be of a similar order.
caption: Tunnel under road for toads, Germany
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