Frog monitoring

One of my side projects at the park is to create research projects for high school and college age students. I started a treefrog monitoring project three months ago and so far I have two volunteers and nine stations. My volunteers come in once a week and check the pvc pipe stations that are located throughout the park. The pipes are in three diameters, 1.5, 1.0, and 0.5 inches.

Sometimes the pipes are empty but often they can have up to five treefrogs inside.

After wrapping a ziploc bag onto one side with a rubberband. They carefully shake the frogs out of the pipe. Once in the bag, they can identify the species and make some observations on the general appearance and size. Then they place the treefrog gently back inside the pipe. Sometimes, you may have a sneaky one that tries to escape. Here is a lively treefrog that wanted to climb up my arm rather than go back into the safety of the pipe.

We have three species of treefrog so far at the park, Cuban, Green, and Squirrel. This project should shed some light on the frog population, diversity, and movement. My two volunteers are a tremendous help even though I think their favorite part is jumping over the fence and going in areas that only staff is allowed.