Toads on our Roads

Every year several hundred toads wake from hibernation and start making their way to Dyffryn Pond to breed.  Unfortunately, a large number of them are killed by passing traffic when they cross busy roads.  Sadly, the Common Toad is not as common as it used to be.  This harmless amphibian is declining in Britain for a variety of reasons, including loss of habitat, pollution and of course, increased traffic leading to more toad deaths on our roads.

However, it's not all bad news as we can help stop the decline in the toad population by helping them get to their breeding pond safely.  Every spring for the last six years, volunteers have patrolled the streets of Waunceirch to rescue toads from the roads and release them near their breeding pond.  So far we have helped more than 3000 toads on their journeys to and from Dyffryn Pond during this time.  Last summer hundreds of toadlets were seen making their way from the pond.  We have not seen these numbers leave the pond in 2009. 

The toad population is decreasing because their natural habitat is under threat by the huge housing development that has grown up in Waunceirch and Bryncoch. Unlike frogs who will happily spawn in garden ponds, toads prefer deep water and struggle to return to the ponds where they started their lives as tadpoles.  It seems hard to believe but toads travel along  their ancestral routes.  These routes have now been covered by the roads and  houses built during the last 20 years.