Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Texas Amphibian Watch is a statewide volunteer program in which citizen scientists monitor frogs and toads in an effort to fend off the extinction of species currently in decline. Here’s how it’s done:

There are different levels of monitoring. The easiest of which is whenever you see an amphibian, you write down the time of day, the weather, the rough location, and then once a year you send that in to Parks and Wildlife and they’ll add that into one database.

Scott Kiester, Texas Amphibian Watch volunteer. If you prefer listening to amphibians as opposed to looking at them, there’s a way you can make a contribution.

There’s a program called Adopt-a-Frog-Pond, where you agree to go and listen and record the species you hear at a specific location. Once a month, sometimes more often than that, I’ll take 15 minutes and go out in the evening and listen to who’s out in the neighborhood croaking away. Frogs are a lot more active and do a lot more calling in that period of time after a rain, particularly if you can do it the day after a rain or if you get a rain in the afternoon go out and do it that evening. They just croak away.

Hop on over to the calendar section of the Texas Parks & Wildlife website to find upcoming Amphibian Watch workshops.

That’s our show for today…with research and writing help from Loren Seeger…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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