Montshire Minute: Spring Peepers

Originally aired during the week of April 28, 2003

Monday

You may not have seen it, but you sure have heard it. A full-fledged adult spring peeper may not measure much more than an inch long. But boy, can the peeper peep! If you live close to a pond or wetland, you may be used to the deafening chorus they make in the early spring. What you are hearing is the male peeper's mating call. Perched on grasses and sedges at the edge of ponds or roadside ditches, the males call shrilly, seeking mates. With their small size and brown coloring, which helps them blend in easily with the dead spring grasses, it is difficult to see a peeper in the daytime. They are also capable of changing the color of their skin to camouflage themselves. But in the evening, with a careful approach and a flashlight, you might just see one.

Tuesday

One of the most abundant frogs in Vermont and New Hampshire, the peeper's song heralds the arrival of spring. Only an inch long, this well camouflaged critter can climb into trees and bushes, using its well-developed adhesive toe pads. It can astound friends and confound enemies by jumping over 17 times its own body length. And the peeper may generate more decibels per pound than any other critter. Who can ignore their deafening chorus on a spring evening? Researchers have identified at least two types of calls - one is the "advertisement" call. This is usually a single-note peep used to attract the attention of a female. The other is a trill of variable length which signals it is alert to another male intruding in its territory. The spring peeper feeds mostly on soft-bodied invertebrates like small spiders, moth larvae and water midges.

Wednesday

You may have never seen a spring peeper, but you sure have heard them! These are the frogs that make that shrill "peep-peep" sound during early spring nights. What you are hearing is the male peeper's mating call. After selecting her mate, the silent female (slightly larger than the male) enters the water and lays between 800 to 1,000 eggs, one at a time onto stems of aquatic plants. The eggs hatch within a few days, but most will fall prey to insects, turtles, snakes, or salamanders. The first few weeks after hatching, the tadpoles keep a low profile on the bottom of the pond, feeding on algae or other aquatic plants. Return to the pond at the end of the two month larval period and you may see many tiny hopping frogs on the water's edge. These are newly metamorphosed peepers. Can we call them "peepettes?"

Thursday

Few creatures undergo such a dramatic transformation from egg to adult as frogs and toads. The tadpole is almost totally fish-like, but it will eventually develop into a four-legged land dweller. The tadpole feeds entirely on tiny plant-life like algae, unlike the adult frog, which is an omnivore (that is, it eats plants and animals like worms and insects). Even the frog's heart undergoes dramatic change, transforming from the two-chambered organ typical of fish to a three-chambered one. In his book the Life of the Pond, William Amos observes that the metamorphosis of the frog from egg to adult resembles the changes required when backboned animals left the water and took up life on land. That process was accomplished over millions of years - the frog completes a similar transformation in a few months.

Friday

You may have walked through a vernal pool on a summer day and never gotten your shoes wet. How can that be? The word "vernal" means "occurring or appearing in the spring." So a vernal pool fills up in the spring from melting snow and seasonal rains. As the weather warms up, the water evaporates or is absorbed into the ground. During the summer and fall the vernal pool may resemble nothing more than a small clearing in the woods, covered with dry leaves. Vernal pools may here today and gone tomorrow, but they play a key role in the life cycle of many animals including the spring peeper. These amphibians depend on vernal pools for the survival of their species. Montshire is fortunate to have a vernal pool on its grounds - a footpath leads spring trailwalkers to this fragile environment. Come see it while it's still wet!