Rich Peet wrote:
> In MN we have 1 pond left in the state with Northern Cricket Frogs.=20
> This year there was ten times more of them calling than last year. I
> recorded about 12 frogs calling. If you want sound of our population
> I am happy to share. I have not seen our states genetics report yet
> as they are still trying to get off the hook of protecting this pond
> if the population is not native. Being in a suburban area of a large
> city near barge traffic it is possible that they are not native.
>
> Rich Peet
I'm glad to hear your population is surviving. You put up a recording at
one point of them, and I listened to that. Sounds like exactly the same
call we get. Though we get far higher numbers.
At this point the samples for genetic studies are what's needed. If we
find that the area is extensive this could get to be lots of fun. Right
now we are trying to get surrounding counties.
Whatever they are, they called the same as any other Northern Cricket
Frog. I'm kind of expecting it's going to fizzle out.
The researcher is Brad Shaffer at Cal-Davis. Locally we are just
suppliers of specimens. The Acris specimens in question were collected
in Jasper County GA. John Jensen collected those, and identified the
calls. Any call ID he does is normally as good as gold. The report back
is that they are genetically unique from the crepitans and gryllus
tissue Brad Shaffer has from elsewhere. So, it's time for a wider net
and more genetic work. Because Brad has samples from other states that
don't show this, I'm expecting something local.
Note this sort of thing is going to happen a lot. Extensive genetic
studies are pretty new, and each one produces things like this. The
actual researcher depends on field biologists all across the country for
specimens to sort it out. That's my role in this, just got a request to
try and get some specimens. Justin and I went out last night to a couple
ponds but no luck in finding any, though we found hundreds of newly
minted green treefrogs at one pond. And I'd forgotten to put my camera in.
If this turns out to be something, it would be unusual. In general call
differences are being confirmed by genetic testing. It's more the
physical characteristics that are being shown to not be as reliable as
thought.
Walt
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