Frogs and Toads of North America

Crickets and Bullfrogs and more. A spacious "binaural" soundscape; please listen using headphones. © Lang Elliott.

Warm rains arrive, and there is an explosion of activity in the amphibian world; frogs and toads emerge from shelter and appear as if by magic in flooded pools, ponds, and streams. Individuals of one or more species join together in what appears to be a great celebration of sound — their yearly breeding effort, when males call excitedly to attract females in the age-old quest to reproduce.

Squirrel Treefrog © Lang Elliott.

Frogs and toads produce an impressive variety of sounds, all manner of croaks, peeps, trills, snores, barks, and chuckles. Choruses often pulsate with complex rhythms; neighboring males call back and forth in tight alternation and groups erupt after long periods of silence. While scientists interpret these calls in terms of their function — mate attraction, aggression, distress, and the like — the poet listens with a different ear, judging the emotional impacts of the sounds and the feelings evoked by the choruses.

Wood Frog - Pair in amplexus © Lang Elliott.

The enchanting calls of frogs and toads emanating from wetlands in the dark of the night have a primal, timeless quality, and evoke in many a sentiment expressed by Sigurd F. Olson in his book The Singing Wilderness: “This is a primeval chorus, the sort of wilderness music which reigned over the earth millions of years ago . . . one of the most ancient sounds of the earth, it is a continuation of music from the past, and, no matter where I listen to a bog at night, strange feelings stir within me.”

American Toad © Lang Elliott.

In this online guide, we celebrate the lives and calls of more than one hundred species of frogs and toads found in North America. They are a unique and diverse group of organisms that many of us take for granted. But some species are in trouble, and others are likely to follow. Frogs and toads are indicators of environmental health. They are affected not only by habitat destruction and global climate change but also by chemical pollution and disease. A number of western species are undergoing severe declines and could be headed toward extinction, in part because of chytrid fungus, a disease that is having enormous impacts on amphibian populations throughout the world. Now is clearly the time for an increased awareness of our frogs and toads, coupled with closer monitoring of their populations and intensive scientific study of the causes of their declines.

Greenfrog © Lang Elliott.

Our frogs and toads are a natural treasure worth saving. They excite our imaginations; their sounds stir the music within our souls. They impress us at every turn, not only during the breeding season, when their calls enliven the night air, but also during our daytime walks along the shores of ponds, lakes, and woodland pools, when we share the experience of Basho and other poets of centuries past:

Old dark sleepy pool
Quick unexpected frog
Goes plop! Watersplash
— Basho (seventeenth-century haiku poet)