CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (4:45).
Sections below are the following:
Transcript of Audio
Audio Notes and Acknowledgments
Images
Sources
Related Water Radio Episodes
For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.).
Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 3-11-22.
TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO
From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of March 14, 2022. This is a revised version of an episode from March 2019.
SOUNDS – ~5 sec.
This week, that raspy call opens an episode about several species of small frogs that share a common group name but differ in sound and distribution. Have a listen for about 10 seconds to two species recorded simultaneously, and see if you know the name of this frog group. And here’s a hint: to get the key word, gather a lot of harmonious singers, or skip over a song’s verses.
SOUNDS - ~10 sec.
If you guessed chorus frogs, you’re right! You heard the creaky call of Mountain Chorus Frogs along with the single notes of Spring Peepers, two of seven chorus frog species in Virginia. The other five are the Little Grass Frog and four more species with “chorus frog” in their name: Brimley’s, New Jersey, Southern, and Upland chorus frogs. As a group, they’re noted for their choruses of calling males advertising for mates in breeding season. Those calls vary among the species in pitch, tone, and how quickly sounds are repeated. The species also differ in their distribution in Virginia: Spring Peepers occur statewide, and Upland Chorus Frogs are found in much of the state, but the other five occupy narrower ranges in the Commonwealth.
The Mountain Chorus Frog, which is found from Pennsylvania to Mississippi, including southwestern Virginia, is getting special scientific attention. Since 2019, scientists Kevin Hamed, at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and Wally Smith, at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, have led a project to learn more about the species’ distribution. Collaborating with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (formerly the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries), they’re inviting Virginia citizens, especially K-12 students, to look and listen for this species and to submit information on any observations. The project’s Web site notes that Mountain Chorus Frog’s breeding activity is mostly from February to April, but may continue into June; they’ll call during the day as well as at night; and places to hear them—which is more likely than seeing them—include wet ditches, flooded fields, mountain seeps and springs, tire ruts, and furrows in plowed fields.
To learn more about this project, to submit Mountain Chorus
Frog observations, or to request a classroom visit by the researchers, go online
to mtchorusfrog.fishwild.vt.edu,
or call Kevin Hamed at (540) 231-1887.
Thanks to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources and to Lang Elliott for permission to use this week’s sounds, from A Guide to the Frogs and Toads of Virginia. We close with a medley of calls from the seven chorus frogs found in Virginia, in alphabetical order. Have a listen for about 20 seconds, and see if you can recall their names, mentioned earlier in this episode. Good luck!
SOUNDS - ~ 23 sec – Brimley’s Chorus Frog, Little Grass Frog, Mountain Chorus Frog, New Jersey Chorus Frog, Southern Chorus Frog, Spring Peeper, Upland Chorus Frog.
SHIP’S BELL
Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water
Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources
and Environment. For more Virginia water
sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call
the Water Center at (540) 231-5624. Thanks
to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this
episode. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo,
thanking you for listening, and
wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.
AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This Virginia Water Radio episode revises and replaces Episode 464, 3-18-19.
The frog sounds in this episode were from “The Calls of
Virginia Frogs and Toads” CD, copyright 2008 by the Virginia Department of Game
and Inland Fisheries (now the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources) and
Lang Elliott/NatureSoundStudio, used with permission. The CD accompanies
A Guide to the Frogs and Toads of
Virginia, Special Publication Number 3, Virginia Department of Game and
Inland Fisheries; as of March 14, 2022, that publication is no longer available
at Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources online store, https://www.shopdwr.com/. For more information, contact the Department
at P.O. Box 90778, Henrico, VA 23228-0778; phone: (804) 367-1000 (VTDD); main
Web page is https://dwr.virginia.gov/;
to send e-mail, visit https://dwr.virginia.gov/contact/.
Lang Elliott’s work is available online at the “Music of
Nature” Web site, http://www.musicofnature.org/.
Thanks to the following people for their help with this episode:
Carola Haas, Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation,
Blacksburg;
John Kleopfer, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources;
Kevin Hamed, Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation,
Blacksburg;
Wally Smith, University of Virginia’s College at Wise.
Click
here if you’d like to hear the full version (1 min./11 sec.) of the
“Cripple Creek” arrangement/performance by Stewart Scales that opens and closes
this episode. More
information about Mr. Scales and the group New Standard, with which Mr.
Scales plays, is available online at http://newstandardbluegrass.com.
IMAGES
Below are Virginia county occurrence maps for the seven chorus frog species found in Virginia, all from the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (formerly Department of Game and Inland Fisheries), “Fish and Wildlife Information Service,” online at https://vafwis.dgif.virginia.gov/fwis/, accessed 3/15/22.
SOURCES
Used for Audio
AmphibiaWeb, https://amphibiaweb.org/index.html.
John D. Kleopfer and Chris S. Hobson, A Guide to the Frogs and Toad of Virginia, Special Publication
Number 3, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries [now Department of
Wildlife Resources], Richmond, Va., 2011.
Bernard S. Martof, et al., Amphibians and Reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1980.
J.C. Mitchell and K.K. Reay, Atlas of Amphibians and Reptiles in Virginia, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries/Richmond (1999); available online (as a PDF) at https://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/atlases/mitchell-atlas.pdf, courtesy of the Virginia Herpetological Society. (Herpetology refers to the study of amphibians and reptiles.)
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, “Wildlife
Information,” online at https://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/information/. Information for the seven chorus frogs found
in Virginia is at the following links:
Brimley’s
Chorus Frog;
Little
Grass Frog;
Mountain
Chorus Frog;
New
Jersey Chorus Frog;
Southern
Chorus Frog;
Spring
Peeper;
Upland
Chorus Frog.
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, “Virginia Fish
and Wildlife Information Service,” online at https://services.dwr.virginia.gov/fwis/. This site has detailed information on life
history, distribution, habitat, and other aspects of species. The information specifically for the seven
chorus frogs found in Virginia is at the following links:
Brimley’s
Chorus Frog;
Little
Grass Frog;
Mountain
Chorus Frog;
New
Jersey Chorus Frog;
Southern
Chorus Frog;
Spring
Peeper;
Upland
Chorus Frog.
Virginia Herpetological Society, “Frogs and Toads of Virginia,” online at https://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/amphibians/frogsandtoads/frogs_and_toads_of_virginia.htm.
Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, “Mountain
Chorus Frog,” online at https://www.mtchorusfrog.fishwild.vt.edu/. This is the Web site for the Mountain Chorus
Frog monitoring initiative being under taken by Virginia Tech, the University
of Virginia’s College at Wise, and the Virginia Department of Wildlife
Resources.
For More Information about Frogs or Other Amphibians
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), National Amphibian Research
and Monitoring Initiative, online at https://armi.usgs.gov/.
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, “A Guide to the Salamanders of Virginia,” online at https://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/salamanders/.
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, “A Guide to Virginia’s Frogs and Toads,” online at https://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/frogs-and-toads/.
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, “Virginia is for Frogs,” online at https://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/virginia-is-for-frogs/.
Sarah Wade, “UVa-Wise team hunts for amphibians in SW Va.'s high-altitude wetlands,” Bristol Herald-Courier, July 4, 2021. This article describes research in 2021 by Wally Smith, at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, who is one of the researchers in the Mountain Chorus Frog project noted in this episode’s audio.
RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES
All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html). See particularly the “Amphibians” subject category.
Following is the link to another episode on an amphibian monitoring project:
Episode
357, 2-27-17 – on the Eastern Spadefoot.
Following are links to other
episodes focusing on frog species in the chorus frog group:
Brimley's Chorus
Frog – Episode 563, 2-8-21;
Little Grass
Frog – Episode 509, 1-27-20;
Spring Peeper
– Episode
570, 3-29-21; Episode 618, 2-28-22.
FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS – RELATED STANDARDS OF LEARNING (SOLs) AND OTHER INFORMATION
Following are some Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs) that may be supported by this episode’s audio/transcript, sources, or other information included in this post.
2018 Science SOLs
Grades K-4: Living Systems and Processes
1.5 – Animals, including humans, have basic life needs that allow them to survive; including that animals can be classified based on a variety of characteristics.
2.4 – Plants and animals undergo a series of orderly changes as they grow and develop, including life cycles.
2.5 – Living things are part of a system.
3.5 – Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems support a diversity of organisms.
4.2 – Plants and animals have structures that distinguish them from one another and play vital roles in their ability to survive.
4.3 – Organisms, including humans, interact with one another and with the nonliving components in the ecosystem.
Grades K-5: Earth and Space Systems
2.7 – Weather patterns and seasonal changes affect plants, animals, and their surroundings.
3.7 – There is a water cycle and water is important to life on Earth.
4.4 – Weather conditions and climate have effects on ecosystems and can be predicted.
Grades K-5: Earth Resources
3.8 – Natural events and humans influence ecosystems.
4.8 – Virginia has important natural resources.
Grade 6
6.6 – Water has unique physical properties and has a role in the natural and human-made environment.
6.9 – Humans impact the environment and individuals can influence public policy decisions related to energy and the environment.
Life Science
LS.6 – Populations in a biological community interact and are interdependent.
LS.8 – Change occurs in ecosystems, communities, populations, and organisms over time.
LS.9 – Relationships exist between ecosystem dynamics and human activity.
LS.10 – Organisms reproduce and transmit genetic information to new generations.
Biology
BIO.7 – Populations change through time.
BIO.8 – Dynamic equilibria exist within populations, communities, and ecosystems.
Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.
Following are links to Water Radio episodes (various topics) designed especially for certain K-12 grade levels:
Episode 250, 1-26-15 – on boiling, for kindergarten through 3rd grade;
Episode 255, 3-2-15 – on density, for 5th and 6th grade;
Episode 282, 9-21-15 – on living vs. non-living, for kindergarten;
Episode 309, 3-28-16 – on temperature regulation in animals, for kindergarten through 12th grade;
Episode 333, 9-12-16 – on dissolved gases, especially dissolved oxygen in aquatic habitats, for 5th grade;
Episode 404, 1-22-18 – on ice on ponds and lakes, for 4th through 8th grade;
Episode 407, 2-12-18 – on snow chemistry and physics, for high school;
Episode 483, 7-29-19 – on buoyancy and drag, for middle school and high school;
Episode 524, 5-11-20 – on sounds by water-related animals, for elementary school through high school;
Episode 531, 6-29-20 – on various ways that animals get water, for 3rd and 4th grade;
Episode 539, 8-24-20 – on basic numbers and facts about Virginia’s water resources, for 4th and 6th grade;
Episode 606, 12-6-21 – on freezing and ice, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
