Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Frog Frenzy




The Bateman's bog behind Clay dorm and the library is hoppin'.  Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) are in full song, and the evening chorus can be heard from almost anywhere on campus.  If you want to go looking for them, though, you'll need boots, a flashlight, and, ideally, earplugs.  The songs of individual males at close range (50 cm) may reach 92.4 decibels (to put this in context, a jackhammer at 50 feet away is in the 95 dB range).  My ears are still ringing from shooting the video you see above! 

Given the enormous sound they produce, you may be surprised to find that Spring Peepers are actually quite small.  Here is one in the hand of a relatively small twelve-year-old boy.




The primary purpose of the deafening chorus is, of course, reproductive, and therefore mating pairs are not an uncommon sight.  Shown below, the male is the darker, smaller individual on top of the larger, paler female.  As you can see from these images, there is considerable variation in individual coloration, with some peepers showing much more contrast in their skin pattern.


Peepers are not the only frogs active in the Bateman's bog these days, however.  The rattling calls of Leopard Frogs can be heard alongside the short grunts of Green Frogs like this one:





No comments:

Post a Comment