Amphibian Monitoring
Frogs are an indicator species, meaning they are sensitive to environmental changes, such as pollution. Monitoring frog populations on Jekyll enables us to detect population fluctuations in response to many factors such as weather extremes like drought, events such as storm surge that result in salinity increases in fresh water wetlands, pollution, or disease. We conduct monthly frog-call surveys during the warm months, and we have vertical pipes that attract tree frogs by providing shelter, strategically placed around several wetlands to monitor tree-dwelling species. Monitoring frogs has also allowed us to compile a species list, and detect the presence of non-native frogs. Currently we have documented 12 species of toads and frogs on Jekyll Island, including two non-native species, the greenhouse frog and Cuban tree frogs (for a complete species list see link below). These species are of concern because they compete for the same resources, often better than native frogs, can introduce diseases that our native frogs aren’t equipped to handle as well, and the large Cuban tree frogs can actually eat our local native frog species. For more information about our local frog species see SREL Herp page. You can help us by reporting sightings of Cuban tree frogs, which are amongst our highest priority invasive species for control on the island. More information on how to identify Cuban tree frogs can be found at University of Florida’s wildlife page. To make a report call our wildlife cell phone at 912.222.5992.
Download: Frog Species List
