By Jim Knox
Anytime now. We’ll hear them calling. As winter softens its icy grip, the clear bell-like “peeps” will carry through the night reminding us that spring has a voice—an impatient voice. With a musical chorus that resonates through the wetlands and forests, this creature makes its presence known. At a mere inch in length, this creature has a larger-than-life presence with a voice that rules the night. Reaching a motorcycle revving volume of 90 decibels, a single male can make an ear-splitting din from a few steps away. So just who is this lilliputian creature with the goliath voice?
The Spring Peeper, Pseudacris crucifer, is a tiny tree frog (a member of the Chorus Frog family) and our region’s unofficial ambassador of spring. As soon as the winter thaw is underway and open water invites the males who belt out their mating calls. Attracted by the calls, females arrive, mate and lay eggs just 12 days later, kicking off an explosion of life emerging from the warming wetlands.
Weighing in between 3 and 5 grams (between a penny and a nickel in weight), these little amphibians are heard far more than they are seen. Ranging in color from gray, to green, to tan or even reddish, they sport a prominent dark cross on their backs and a dark stripe running from their snout through their eye. Though they spend most of their time on the forest floor among leaf litter or under fallen logs, Spring Peepers are true tree frogs possessing spatulate pads on the tips of their toes, enabling them to climb vertically and adhere to tiny branches and leaves with unfailing grip.
Like most frogs, Spring Peepers play a vital ecological role in wetland and forest ecosystems. Preying on insects, worms, slugs and other invertebrates, these amphibians serve as agents of balance keeping prey species populations in check, promoting health of the wild systems they inhabit. In turn, they provide a meal for many species of birds, snakes, salamanders, larger frogs, and mammals. Yet, Peepers are not without their defenses. With smooth skin tones resembling the color of fallen leaves, and markings to break up their outline, Peepers benefit from excellent camouflage. This visual “cloak” protects them from a host of predators which key in on movement.
While they certainly fulfill a key role in nature, Spring Peepers offer to help us humans in other ways. Given amphibians are extremely sensitive to environmental change, disruption, and degradation, they are intensively studied as indicator species (species that indicate environmental health). It is this sensitivity that makes them of keen interest to scientists and citizen scientists alike.
An invaluable conservation program that unites these two communities is FrogWatch USA. This nationwide program instructs people of all ages how to accurately identify frog species diversity and abundance in local wetlands—sometimes in their own backyard. Our local chapter in Southwestern Connecticut is the Peabody/Beardsley/Maritime Chapter. This unique chapter unites the professionals of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo, and The Maritime Aquarium. As the first tri-chapter in the country, The Peabody/Beardsley/Maritime Chapter (PBM Chapter) combined the expertise of these three conservation / education institutions to yield a winning team. Covering more habitat than any single institution and training consistently high numbers of citizen scientists every year, the chapter has been able to seamlessly coordinate an effort that has produced the highest number of frog call recordings in the nation for several years running!
With so many trained ears listening for the calls of mating frogs, the PBM Chapter is poised to define the known range of the Atlantic Coast Leopard Frog in Southwestern Connecticut. This species—discovered in the 21st century, still hides its secrets from science, and volunteers are endeavoring to uncover the facts concerning this species and others. By determining the presence, diversity, and abundance of frog species in our own backyard, we are able to draw informed conclusions as to the health of local habitats in Fairfield County. Additionally, we can make scientifically informed conservation decisions to protect these remarkable amphibians and the habitat they require.
In the Spring Peeper we have a a perfectly adapted creature which provides ecological balance throughout its range. With a louder-than-life voice, and a larger-than-life presence, the Spring Peeper calls out. We humans can take a lesson from these little amphibians—finding our voice in the chaos around us and calling out clearly to find one another in the vastness of a big world.
Jim Knox serves as the Curator of Education for Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo and as a Science Advisor for The Bruce Museum. A Member of The Explorers Club, Jim enjoys sharing his passion for wildlife with audiences in Connecticut and beyond.
