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Surveying
Frog and Toad Populations
Part of monitoring the anuran (frog and toad) populations
in Minnesota means going out into different habitats and observing the
health of the frogs and toads. The following are pictures of how
we survey amphibian populations as well as the equipment we use.
Pictured from left to right: Sehoya (herpetologist),
Sue and Jeff (Minnesota Pollution Control Agency). |
This is the kind of pond that
frogs and toads use for breeding in the Spring. It's perfect
for finding frogs! We use big nets to catch frogs and toads,
and cement mixing buckets to hold them in temporarily. Before
we even start walking down to the ponds, we trade our shoes for
waders because we don't want to track any contaminants from the
streets or places where we've walked into the ponds.
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| We're trying to net some frogs!
One thing to remember when searching for frogs is to always wear
gloves, like Erika (A Thousand Friends of Frogs) and Sehoya are
in this photo. Amphibians' skin is permeable, or porous, so
it can absorb anything that is on your hands like bug spray, lotion,
hair spray, etc. Frogs and toads are very sensitive to the
chemicals that are in these products, and if they come in contact
with them they may suffer shock and die. |
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Searching for amphibians is hard work. Frogs move very fast, so
you need to be attentive and keep your eyes open!
(Graphic courtesy of "myschoolonline.com")
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| After catching 100 frogs (or as many
as we can in two hours) we weigh and measure each frog/toad, look
them over for abnormalities, and record this information.
When we're finished, we release the frogs and toads back into the
ponds where we found them. This is very important because
we want to preserve the amphibian populations in these habitats. |
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Click here to see some pictures of malformed
frogs and toads.
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