Motorists are being warned to watch out for amorous toads on Wiltshire’s roads during their breeding season.

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust has put up warning signs, for the first time, close to its nature reserve in Smallbrook Meadows, Warminster.

Hundreds of toads will be heading there over the next few months and the two new signs urge drivers to slow down in Smallbrook Road.

Volunteers will monitor the reserve and report back to the trust on how successful the signs have been in cutting down on the deaths of toads.

Group warden Clive Thomas said an increase in volunteers has allowed the group to monitor the success of the toads’ migration week-by-week.

He said: “The team we have and the work they carry out is maintenance to keep the reserve going and to make sure that the natural order of the reserve is kept in check for the wildlife.

“Smallbrook is mainly a wetland reserve and toads movements are not like those of mammals, which can make a quick dash at any sign of danger. They will often remain static in the middle of a track or road until instinct tells them to move on.

“WWT have said that they could not function without the work of the volunteers and it is schemes like this which shows that, because we can report back on the success of the signs.”

The signs were paid for by Warminster Community Area Trans-port Group and the town council, which were made aware of the toads’ travel heartbreak last year.

Ashley White, the trust’s field officer at the reserve, said: “Smallbrook is popular with the common toad. They love this wetland habitat where we have ponds and ditches.

“The toads will spend most of the year in people’s gardens, however, at this time of year, when it starts to warm up in the evenings, they start to migrate back to the pond where they were spawned.

“But that puts them in a greater risk of danger, particularly at night.

“The signs have been put up to warn drivers that toads could be crossing the road and they will be in place until May, which is when migrating would have stopped.”

The nature reserve in Smallbrook is home to a range of wildlife, because of its water meadows, wet woodland, ponds and ditches, which allow the toads to migrate in big groups which they do to put off predators.