Looking for Frogs in the Corkscrew Watershed

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 workforce of 4 volunteers included each seasoned consultants and novice frog watchers. The purpose? Conduct month-to-month surveys in the course of the summer season breeding season at pre-determined places across the Sanctuary to document 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 modifications over time.

Why examine frogs?

Many wetland species are immediately affected by growth, however few animals present these impacts as dramatically as amphibians. Through the current 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.

In keeping with their knowledge, no less than three species are hardly ever or not heard calling throughout a lot of their historic vary, together with refrain frogs, gopher frogs, and Japanese 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 cricket frog haven’t been heard on the Sanctuary in a few years.

The June survey

Through the June survey, we drove to the twelve places 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 workforce information the environmental situations, together with time, temperature, sky situation, noise code, water stage, and any seen modifications to the habitat.

Each location had various levels of visitors noise, and the sky was largely clear with a crescent moon, however the workforce noticed one fixed: no water, and few frogs have been calling. By the tip of the night, the workforce recorded one species, greenhouse frog (a nonnative species), being heard in eight of twelve places. Moreover, we recorded a pig frog in 5 places, plus overlapping oak toad calls at two places (indicating multiple particular person current), one cricket frog, and an precise refrain of inexperienced tree frogs (three or extra people current). Solely two places had three species current — each have 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 subsequent three surveys are prone to replicate higher numbers. In actual fact, throughout a late-June guided night time 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 surroundings 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.