By Helen Briggs BBC News
6 October 2016
The common toad is in decline
across much of the UK and needs better protection, say conservationists.
Data from toad patrols -
volunteers who move toads across busy roads - shows the toad population has
fallen by more than two-thirds since the 1980s.
Once common in the British
countryside, the amphibian is now on the brink of qualifying for protection as
a vulnerable species, a study suggests.
Factors in its loss include urban
sprawl and habitat fragmentation.
Silviu Petrovan, from the UK
charity Froglife, said the information came from Toads on Roads - volunteer
patrols established in the early 1970s to move toads over busy roads.
"Our data shows that
hundreds of thousands of toads have been lost from the UK countryside in the
past 30 years," he said.
The south-east of England has
suffered the greatest declines in the common toad (Bufo bufo), according to the
research.
Numbers have also fallen in Wales
and the south-west and west of England in the past, but have stabilised in the
last decade.
Central and northern areas of
England as well as Scotland have also experienced declines.
In the east of England, numbers
have recovered since 2005, but not enough to reverse previous losses.
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