A recovery program for the natterjack toad (Bufo calamita) in Britain

The natterjack toad (Bufo calamita) is an endangered species in Britain and has been legally protected since 1975. This amphibian suffered a major decline during the first half of the twentieth century, due partly to habitat destruction but mostly to successional changes in its specialized biotopes and anthropogenic acidification of breeding sites. In addition to site and species protection, extensive autecological research over the past 25 years has provided the foundations for an intensive, 3-year species recovery program funded by the statutory nature conservation organizations (English Nature and the countryside Council for Wales). This program was based on habitat management and reintroductions to restored sites and followed similar but less intensive efforts. Management of heath and dune habitats focused on restoration and maintenance of early stages of seral succession, initially through physical clearance of invasive scrub and woodland vegetation and later by the reestablishment of grazing regimes similar to those prevalent in earlier centuries. In some cases extra breeding pools wee provided to either increase or stabilize natterjack toad populations that had become reliant on one or very few pools at small sites or to promote range expansion within large habitat areas. By 1995 proactive conservation work had been carried out at 29 (69%) of the 39 sites with extant native populations, including 8 during the recovery program. Twenty reintroductions also had been attempted, including nine during the program. At least six reintroductions resulted in the foundation of expanding new populations, and an additional eight have shown initial signs of success. Conservation methods developed for Bufo calamita should provide a useful precedent for long-term conservation of early successional habitats and species.