Wildlife of the James - Spring Peepers

Spring Peepers

Pseudacris crucifer

By Gabe Silver, JRA Environmental Educator

Who is happy about all the rain we’ve been having? Our amphibian friends, of course. Step outside on a rainy March day and you can hear the spring peeper frogs singing. Widely recognized as one of the first signs of spring, the spring peepers’ insistent call brings a sense of hope for warmer, longer days to come. The tiny frog (adults are ¾ ”- 1 ½ ” long) hibernates under logs and loose bark before becoming active as one of the first of its kind to breed in the spring.

Tan or brown in color, the spring peeper bears a dark cross that forms an X across its back, the characteristic leading to its Latin species name crucifer. While you’ve probably heard many of these amphibians, you may not have seen them. They are known to be difficult to locate, ceasing their song when approached. After breeding in wetlands or temporary ponds (called vernal pools), adults will spend the season as nocturnal carnivores, hunting beetles, ants, flies and spiders. The 900 or so eggs laid by each female will hatch into tadpoles and transform into frogs within 5-7 weeks.

The spring peeper is one of the more common frogs in the James watershed and the eastern half of the United States. However, in local areas populations have declined due to the loss of wetland habitat to other land uses. As a whole, amphibians are considered a “canary in the coal mine” for environmental health because they easily absorb toxins in the air and water through their skin. Globally, amphibians are taking the hit of pollution and climate change hard, and biodiversity in this important class of the animal kingdom is in steep decline.

You can get involved monitoring the abundance and diversity of amphibians in a citizen-science project called the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program. You learn to distinguish frog calls and then monitor a site through the season. Over the years, patterns emerge in local areas that help scientists understand what is happening to our “peeping friends. “

Watch and Listen to a Spring Peeper “Peep”

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