Kaysie
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- Mar 10, 2003
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- North Dakota
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- Kaysie
I recently spent a week in the field with a Ph.D. candidate friend of mine, helping her do elastimer tagging and callback surveys on cricket frogs.
Cricket frogs are fairly uncommon in Michigan. And they're TINY! Adults range from 2-3cm, while juveniles can be as small as 6mm at emergence. They also have a mighty leap. Adults can leap up to 1 meter in a single bound, and often do a 'double leap', where they'll land, and turn, and jump again. They're practically impossible to catch.
Her sites have already been determined, so we drove to one, half an abandoned gravel pit (the other side is still active), next to a McMansion subdivision. The site was fairly shallow, due to our recent lack of rainfall, fairly heavy in Eurasian Milfoil and Purple Loosestrife (two invasive plants). There were a few spike rush, some willow, and a lot of muck.
I conducted some shoreline mapping, and caught some frogs along the way. Unlike big frogs, it's easiest to catch these little guys with a net. Along the way, we encountered a neonate garter snake (pencil size) attempting to eat a MUCH larger leopard frog (baseball size). The frog looked seriously annoyed with the 'string' attached to its butt. But anyone who's ever been bit by a garter knows that they just don't let go. So the frog lumbered around with the snake attached at the butt. I wish I had pictures.
Frog-wise, we caught 8 adults and 4 juveniles. These were elastimer tagged. This involves injecting a colored gel (blue, in this case) into either the right (for juvies) or left (for adult) thigh, where it can be seen through the skin. No one's sure quite the life span on cricket frogs (probably under 2 years), and this will aid us when we go to recapture the population.
All in all, I was bitten 4 times by deerflies, fell knee deep into muck twice (and once onto my butt), and caught 2 frogs. But it was a great time!
Cricket frogs are fairly uncommon in Michigan. And they're TINY! Adults range from 2-3cm, while juveniles can be as small as 6mm at emergence. They also have a mighty leap. Adults can leap up to 1 meter in a single bound, and often do a 'double leap', where they'll land, and turn, and jump again. They're practically impossible to catch.
Her sites have already been determined, so we drove to one, half an abandoned gravel pit (the other side is still active), next to a McMansion subdivision. The site was fairly shallow, due to our recent lack of rainfall, fairly heavy in Eurasian Milfoil and Purple Loosestrife (two invasive plants). There were a few spike rush, some willow, and a lot of muck.
I conducted some shoreline mapping, and caught some frogs along the way. Unlike big frogs, it's easiest to catch these little guys with a net. Along the way, we encountered a neonate garter snake (pencil size) attempting to eat a MUCH larger leopard frog (baseball size). The frog looked seriously annoyed with the 'string' attached to its butt. But anyone who's ever been bit by a garter knows that they just don't let go. So the frog lumbered around with the snake attached at the butt. I wish I had pictures.
Frog-wise, we caught 8 adults and 4 juveniles. These were elastimer tagged. This involves injecting a colored gel (blue, in this case) into either the right (for juvies) or left (for adult) thigh, where it can be seen through the skin. No one's sure quite the life span on cricket frogs (probably under 2 years), and this will aid us when we go to recapture the population.
All in all, I was bitten 4 times by deerflies, fell knee deep into muck twice (and once onto my butt), and caught 2 frogs. But it was a great time!
