It was a heat, nonetheless night in June when the crew gathered simply after sundown at Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary for the primary Frog Watch survey of 2026. Led by the Sanctuary’s director of public packages, Sally Stein, the group of 4 volunteers included each seasoned consultants and novice frog watchers. The objective? Conduct month-to-month surveys through the summer time breeding season at pre-determined areas across the Sanctuary to file any frogs heard calling.
Based by the Southwest Florida Amphibian Monitoring Community greater than 25 years in the past, Frog Watch is a various group of volunteers devoted to monitoring frog populations and different amphibians in Collier, Lee, and Charlotte counties, monitoring adjustments over time.
Why examine frogs?
Many wetland species are instantly affected by improvement, however few animals present these impacts as dramatically as amphibians. Throughout the latest Corkscrew Watershed Science Discussion board, John Cassani and others with Florida Gulf Coast College described the outcomes of 26 years of Frog Watch surveys throughout Southwest Florida, with native knowledge echoing the worldwide decline of those environmental indicators.
Based on their knowledge, at the least three species are hardly ever or now not heard calling throughout a lot of their historic vary, together with refrain frogs, gopher frogs, and Jap spadefoot toads. It’s well-known that these animals are threatened by air pollution, rainfall deficits, predation, and microbes, however species such because the pinewoods treefrog and Southern refrain frog haven’t been heard on the Sanctuary in a few years.
The June survey
Throughout the June survey, we drove to the twelve areas within the Frog Watch survey space (positioned inside a 15-mile radius of the Sanctuary), the place urbanization is ramping up. At every location, the group data the environmental situations, together with time, temperature, sky situation, noise code, water degree, and any seen adjustments to the habitat.
Each location had various levels of site visitors noise, and the sky was principally clear with a crescent moon, however the group noticed one fixed: no water, and few frogs had been calling. By the tip of the night, the group recorded one species, greenhouse frog (a nonnative species), being heard in eight of twelve areas. Moreover, we recorded a pig frog in 5 areas, overlapping oak toad calls at two areas (indicating a couple of particular person current), cricket frog at one location, and an precise refrain of inexperienced tree frogs (three or extra people current). Solely two areas had three species current — each had been throughout the Sanctuary boundary.
Eight species weren’t recorded: barking treefrog, refrain frog, cricket frog, leopard frog, little grass frog, narrow-mouth toad, pinewoods treefrog, and Southern toad. With much-needed rainfall on the finish of June, the following three surveys are prone to replicate higher numbers. In reality, throughout a late-June guided evening stroll on the boardwalk, the group heard pig frogs, a refrain of inexperienced treefrogs, narrow-mouthed toads, oak toads, and greenhouse frogs.
Why this issues
Frogs are nature’s pest controllers and environmental sentinels. They devour huge numbers of bugs—together with mosquitoes—whereas offering meals for birds, snakes, fish, and different wildlife. As a result of they serve the ecosystem each as predator and as prey, their well being displays the well being of the setting we share.
For greater than a century, Audubon has been working to safe and protect the habitats birds depend on, like Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, for his or her breeding, migration, and different important wants. Frogs are an necessary a part of their world, and ours.
