Toad (crapaud) protection

Why they are protected

The Western common toad is an amphibian more commonly known in Jersey as the crapaud - its name in the local patois, Jèrriais. It was once very familiar in Jersey’s ponds and waterways.

In recent years, the crapaud has been disappearing from the natural areas where it was once found. Many private garden ponds still host healthy populations of toads.

Toads are protected by the Wildlife (Jersey) Law 2021.

Wildlife (Jersey) Law 2021 guidance

Toad watching on Jersey Biodiversity Centre

Habitat, breeding and diet

The toad, which walks rather than jumps like a frog, is brown or olive in colour and has a warty skin, which tends to be drier than that of frogs.

Healthy toad populations are important to gardeners and farmers. They can eat thousands of insect pests and therefore reduce the need for chemicals.

Toad spawn is usually laid in the spring and appears as early as January in Jersey. It is laid in long strings of perhaps thousands of small black eggs enclosed in clear jelly. It can be distinguished easily from frogspawn, which is produced in small clumps.

Jersey toad and crapaud factsheet

Threats and decline

There are various reasons contributing to the toads decline in Jersey:

they eat slugs which may have ingested poisons from slug pellets
they can be killed on roads as they enjoy the warmth from the tarmac surface
in all their life stages, they face predation pressure from many animals including rats, pheasants, ferrets and herons
habitat loss due to development

Conservation efforts

There are many conservation efforts to protect toads, this includes:

providing guidance on how to install and maintain gardens and ponds
encouraging new developments to incorporate garden ponds where they would create a link with existing breeding ponds
monitoring and maintaining breeding ponds to make sure ongoing breeding is successful