The NAAMP—and related froglogging initiatives such as FrogWatch USA—are based on the venerable Breeding Bird Survey, for which volunteers have spent literally millions of hours counting North American birds as a way to keep track of population trends. Under NAAMP guidelines, each calling amphibian survey route includes ten five-minute stops at previously selected wetlands—ponds, swamp edges, drainage ditches, marshes. At each listening post, monitors note the species of calling frogs and toads and their relative abundance. Volunteers run the routes three or four times per year to capture a full range of breeding critters.

The Call of the Wild

Learning how to tell the call of a squirrel tree frog from an oak toad isn’t as difficult as one might think. Unlike bird monitors, who must know the intricate sounds of several hundred bird species, frogloggers need memorize only a few dozen tunes. And learning frog and toad calls is a breeze thanks to online tutorials put together by the various monitoring programs. Think of them as a ribbet-based Rosetta Stone. Learn the calls of your local frogs, and you gain a new way to understand the hidden worlds of the South that lie on the far side of the sidewalk. Not to mention that being out there also offers all the visceral Southern thrills of backcountry road cruising under moonlight, such as facing off with obstinate opossums who refuse to share the road.

Given all that, it seems like a bonus that I’m actually doing something constructive. Frogs and toads are considered indicator species—their health offers signals about the biological condition of their habitats. Since these amphibians spend all of their lives in or near water, they can tell us a lot about the overall quality of aquatic environments, places tied directly to human health, as well. “We simply couldn’t do the science without our volunteer monitors,” Hall says.Thankfully, I don’t have any more run-ins with domestic animals. From stop to stop, I roll through farmland and pasture, interspersed with sprawling woodlots. At a tiny cow pasture bog, a band of at least a dozen narrowmouth toads bleat like miniature sheep. Bullfrogs and spring peepers lend percussion and high notes to the symphony. Standing there, alone in a cow pasture, I find myself rooted in the muck, marveling at the sheer volume of frog and toad calls that fill the void of the dark. Their trills and grunts and garrumphs flow out of the humid Southern night into the neat columns of my data sheets. And ultimately, into the annals of science.

For information about the NAAMP, visit www.pwrc.usgs.gov/naamp. To learn about FrogWatch USA, go to www.nwf.org/frogwatchusa. Also, contact your state’s wildlife agency to find out if it offers other frog monitoring programs.