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Southside Outdoors

Fall/Winter 2014

DAILY JOURNAL

WATCHING

frogs
BY JENN WILLHITE
CORRESPONDENT

or nearly 20 years, Franklin resident Karen

more than 50,000 monitored sites as part of the program,
Gotshall has helped monitor amphibian
which boasts more than 100 chapters across the U.S., includpopulations in Johnson County as a voluning Indiana.
teer citizen scientist with FrogWatch USA.
The passive citizen scientist program requires participants
Ive always loved frogs, Gotshall said. I
to attend a certification class where they learn about amphibstarted listening to them years ago.
ian species, the breeding calls of each and their habitats.
Gotshall monitors six different wetland locations in
Our citizen scientists go through training and a lot of
Johnson County during the FrogWatch season, which can
practice to have well-trained ears for identifying the various
start as early as February and lasts into September.
species calls, said Rachel Gauza, FrogWatch national coorThe season starts as soon as temperatures are warm
dinator and education outreach coordinator for the AZA.
enough for the frogs to come out, Gotshall said.
The program is considered strictly passive because volunPrior to joining FrogWatch, Gotshall participated in the
teers listen and record their observations
North American Amphibian Monitoring
without actually touching the
Program, but said she got to a point
amphibians. Intensive handling
where it lost its appeal. Monitoring
by people can be detrimental
activities were confined to specific
In the spring, the frogs and to amphibians due to the
locations, dates and times, which
risk of the inadvertent
toads are very enthusiastic.
made it inconvenient.
transmission of disease,
Sometimes
it
can
be
so
loud
She said FrogWatch offered more
Gauza said.
your ears go numb.
freedom to pick monitoring locations
So what makes frogs and
close to her home and enabled her to
toads so special that they
Karen Gotshall
choose when she would collect data.
deserve their own monitoring
One or two evenings a week, the 65-yearprogram? Theyre good indicaold Gotshall travels to six locations in Johnson
tors of environmental health,
County, including two in Johnson County Park and
Gauza said.
three in the Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area, where she may
Essentially, thriving amphibian populations are
spend up to an hour listening to the frogs calls and recordindicative of a healthy environment.
ing her findings.
Since so many amphibian species live their lives both in
In the spring, the frogs and toads are very enthusiastic,
and out of water, theyre at significant risk for population
she said. Sometimes it can be so loud your ears go numb.
decline or loss due to negative changes in the environment,
FrogWatch USA, a program of the Association of Zoos
including habitat loss, pollution and disease, Gauza said.
and Aquariums, was launched in 1998 to track
When citizen scientists collect data, theyre looking for
amphibian populations across the
basic information, Gauza said. The type of wetland and its
U.S. There are currently
location are recorded and used to frame a snapshot of the
habitat for the resident frog and toad populations.
Amphibians are highly sensitive to disruptions in their
SEE FROGS, PAGE 17

DAILY JOURNAL

Frogs
FROM PAGE 4
environment, so when volunteers get to sites, they
wait at least two minutes and then listen for three
minutes to note the species present and the intensity of the amphibian calls heard, Gauza said.
Youre getting multiple observations from multiple citizen scientists over a period of time, which
offers a more complete picture of the frog and
toad community in that wetland, Gauza said.
Then when you zoom out on that nationwide
scale, you can start to look at patterns over time
and geographic locations.
Even the most inconspicuous locations you
wouldnt think frogs would inhabit are prime
spots to collect valuable data.
You could pass by the same storm retention
pond every day on your drive to work, Gauza
said. But if you never go out after sunset, you
would have no idea about the life that is teeming
within it.
FrogWatch volunteer Terri Gorney, of Fort
Wayne spends anywhere from 30 minutes to an

Southside Outdoors
hour at least two evenings each week collecting
data during the monitoring season. This past year
the 53-year-old said she observed 20 sites around
the Wabash Watershed area in Geneva, as well as
a pond on her property.
She said she gets more out of the experiences
than she gives. The observations and data collection fall right in line with the additional volunteer
work she does for state historic sites and the
Department of Natural Resources.
I remember many of the sounds from when I
was a kid, Gorney said. A lot of times I didnt
know what I was hearing. Now that Im in my 50s,
its a fun experience.
Since joining FrogWatch in 2011, Gorney said
shes had several memorable moments, from a
chorus of frogs answering prerecorded calls on a
CD she was listening to in her car to a lonely
hitchhiker.
A tree frog hitched a ride with me, and I didnt
know it, Gorney said. I was so glad I stopped for
gas because he was sitting on my gas tank. I carry
containers in the car, so I put some water in one
for him. He was fine, and I told him hed be back

Fall/Winter 2014

17

home in a few hours.

Gorney understands firsthand how habitat restoration can benefit amphibian populations. As of
late, the northern cricket frog population has been
in steep decline in the Midwest region due, in
part, to a loss of habitat making the species of special interest for study.
Since the wetlands of Limberlost, in Geneva,
have been restored, Gorney has witnessed a dramatic increase in the northern cricket frog population.
It was like, build it and they will come back,
she said. No one released the frogs there; they
found it on their own when the wetlands were
restored.
To those considering participating in the
FrogWatch program, Gorney recommends you
keep an open mind and have fun with it.
And, if possible, get younger generations
involved.
Theres nothing like teaching firsthand knowledge, Gorney said. And thats what its all about,
getting the next generation interested and teaching them about the natural world around them.O