One of Norfolk’s largest and most successful toad patrols is calling for new volunteers to join its efforts in Thetford Forest next spring.
The Devil’s Punchbowl Toad Patrol, located just north of Croxton, safely assisted an estimated 6,495 amphibians across local roads in 2025, making it the county’s most effective patrol by number of toads saved.
On the busiest night of the season, volunteers guided an extraordinary 1,322 toads to safety as they migrated en masse to their historic breeding ponds. Yet despite this success, the patrol also recorded 813 road casualties in 2025, underlining the urgent need for additional helpers in the year ahead.
The common toad (Bufo bufo) emerges from hibernation in early spring and returns with remarkable fidelity to the ponds where it was born; more than 80% will try to breed at the same site each year. Although toads can live for up to 50 years in captivity, their lifespan in the wild is far shorter, with road mortality playing a significant role.
Research by Froglife and the University of Zurich has shown that common toad populations have declined by 68% across Britain over the past 30 years, making the work of local patrols more important than ever.
From just 18 volunteers in 2024 to 48 in 2025, the Devil’s Punchbowl patrol is growing quickly, but more help is essential to match the scale of the migration. Volunteers work in teams on damp spring evenings, collecting migrating toads from the road and transporting them safely across to the other side.
Patrol Manager Gill said: “Toads desperately need our help across the UK, and this includes supporting the strong populations that we still have. Patrolling is a really worthwhile activity because it is one of the few conservation efforts where you can actually count the number of lives you are saving. It’s also really beneficial for physical and mental health during the darker months of the year, as it gets us out into the fresh air, exercising and meeting like-minded people.”
Anyone interested in volunteering for the 2026 season can get in touch via:
https://toadwatch.org/where-we-patrol/patrol/devilp-patrol
If you live elsewhere in Norfolk, details of other patrols in need of support can be found at:
https://toadwatch.org/
The patrol is also looking to fund the installation of highway toad crossing signs, to raise awareness among motorists that toads are on the road during migration periods, and to improve safety for patrollers on dark evenings. Any individuals or businesses interested in funding this project are invited to contact Gill at:
devilp@toadwatch.org
The common toad has long inspired affection in those who take the time to appreciate it. George Orwell, writing in his 1946 essay Some Thoughts on the Common Toad, championed the animal as an overlooked herald of spring. While skylarks and primroses receive abundant praise, he lamented that the toad “has never had much of a boost from poets.” He also observed “that a toad has about the most beautiful eye of any living creature.” As numbers fall nationwide, volunteers in Thetford can help ensure this understated emblem of spring remains part of our landscape.
