Frog Listening Workshops
by January 28, 2015 1:46 pm 103 views
Two Free Frog Listening Workshops to be Held at Hobbs State Park – Conservation Area
The emergence of ranaviruses has been linked to population declines of the common frog (Rana temporaria) in the UK and some populations of amphibians in the US and Canada. They are suspected to play a role in many other population declines that have been seen in North America and Europe, but research to support this is needed. Citizen scientists are being recruited to help identify what species of frogs and toads remain. Monitoring periods are only 3 minutes long.
Tom Krohn, Arkansas Regional Coordinator for Frog Watch USA, will be conducting frog listening workshops to train volunteer citizen scientists to help in this fun research project. In the first session the classroom workshop will teach you to identify all of the frogs and toads in our area by their calls. Students (of all ages) will follow a PowerPoint presentation and learn to mimic the frog calls. Handouts with visual memory aids will be provided. In addition, you will learn why these amphibians are important, why they are in trouble, and what can be done to help them.
The first workshop session is a pre-requisite for the second session which includes an introduction to wetlands and frog monitor training for the Frog Watch USA national network administered by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Citizen scientists around the country will listen to frogs and toads from February through August at a site of their choice and submit their findings to a national database.
Where: Hobbs State Park visitor center located on Hwy 12 just east of the Hwy 12/War Eagle Road Intersection
When: Friday January 30th 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm and Saturday January 31st 9:00 am – 11:30 am
Cost: Free
To register for the workshops call Hobbs State Park at: 479-789-5000 For more information on Frog Watch USA go to: www.arkansasfrogsandtoads.org.