Like birds, frogs have unique calls, distinguishable from one another—and even from birds in the case of the Bird-voiced Treefrog—by those who are trained to do so. Male frogs start a-croakin’ in earnest in February and keep it up till August, the seven-month period that keeps frog watchers (who should rightly be called frog listeners) busy.
Frog watchers, like their bird and butterfly brethren, are volunteer citizen-scientists who learn to identify frog species by their calls and report their findings to a central organization for use by scientists. In this case, the organization is FrogWatch USA, created by the United States Geological Survey in 1998 to monitor frog populations, which have declined in recent decades. FrogWatch USA has since been taken over by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
As a member of the AZA, the Baton Rouge Zoo will offer two training sessions to the public in January to become full-fledged participants in FrogWatch. In just two hours (and with plenty of audio recordings and supplementary materials to help afterwards) participants will be trained to identify twenty-five different species that are known to live in the area. It is the second year that the zoo is opening the program up to the public.
The mission is serious: not only are populations declining, but frogs and toads are considered important indicators of an ecosystem’s health. Scientists use the data collected by FrogWatch in all kinds of research studies. So a serious commitment is expected among participants, with space reserved for individuals aged 12 and older.
The first training takes place January 7 at 10 am at the Bluebonnet Swamp Education Building; the second takes place January 15 at 1 pm at the Baton Rouge Zoo’s Education Building. Register at brzoo.org/education/learn-at-the-zoo/frogwatch. Deadline to register is December 30 (but if you are late meeting that deadline, a little frog tells us you still might be able to slip in).
