Local wildlife fans are asking drivers to look out for toads crossing roads in Warminster.

After hibernating in people’s gardens the toads waddle their way to their ancestral breeding ponds in the Smallbrook reserve.

Toads are slow and cannot hop as well as a frog. As they travel at night, they often get squashed by motorists on the feeder roads around the Smallbrook Nature Reserve, such as Gipsy Lane, Plants Green, Willow Crescent, Smallbrook Road and Lower Marsh Road.

Patrol member Sarah Walters said: “The numbers of toads have been dropping every year and last year was particularly bad. This might have been because of the Beast from the East but it is probably because garden fencing and new housing is putting more and more obstacles in the way of the routes they want to follow.”

Anyone who would like to join the Smallbrook toad patrol can fill in a form on the Froglife website or by emailing sustwarm@gmail.com