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Listen for the treefrogs
Although it seems hard to believe right now, with all of the snow we have had in Tofino and Ucluelet this week, the Pacific treefrogs are about to emerge from hibernation and fill our puddles and ditches with song.
What awaits us is a chorus—months of ribbeting—so incessant that it has been known to drive some people to fill in their backyard ponds to make it stop!
But not me. I love it! The sound of the first frog in spring brings me such joy.
The frogs here on the west coast of Vancouver Island usually start to sing around the first week of March. Pacific treefrogs (Pseudacris regilla) are one of only two native frog species we have here on the island.
The other is the red-legged frog (Rana aurora), a larger frog which breeds in the bogs and may be encountered in damp forestland in the summer.
I rescued a batch of treefrog eggs from a construction site ten years ago, and raised eleven frogs to adulthood. One of the frogs became very friendly (and very comfortable around my camera). This short video shows her frogs-eye perspective of the world:
Declines in frogs, as well as other amphibians, have been reported in many parts of the world. It is not clear why these declines are taking place, and the causes are probably not exactly the same in each location anyway—but some ideas as to why are: climate change and increased solar radiation; spreading of mould and fungus by human travellers (or even scientists); and environmental contaminants such as pesticides and industrial pollutants.
Here, on the stretch of coastline between Tofino and Ucluelet, there are a number of additional hazards to frogs. Yet again, there is springtime construction taking place in ditches alongside the highway—just as frogs are migrating from the forest into the ditches to breed. This is very unfortunate, as it not only affects the eggs that would have been laid this year, but also has the potential to kill most of the adult breeding population in the area.
The highway itself is a hazard to our local amphibians. Frogs and salamanders migrate between forest and wetlands in early spring and again in the fall. Many of them must cross the highway to do that.
A road is a great barrier for small and slow-moving creatures; on a single rainy autumn night, over one hundred frogs and salamanders may be killed between Tofino and Ucluelet alone.
Ucluelet biologist Barb Beasley saves a salamander from braving the highway
Ucluelet biologist Barb Beasley has been studying amphibian migration and road mortality for several years.
You may have noticed her low plastic barriers on the side of Pacific Rim Highway, north of the Tofino-Ucluelet junction. They were constructed in 2005, to keep frogs and salamanders off the road: the animals get diverted into traps, and during the migration seasons Beasley and her assistants record the species, their size, and the direction they are travelling, in order to continue her studies of our local amphibians. Then the workers carry the creatures across the road, depositing them to safety in the rainforest.
Beasley has used her research findings to determine where the majority of road crossings by amphibians occur, and her society has been working with the BC Ministry of Transportation to construct a tunnel there, which will allow the creatures to make their migrations safely.
Hurray for big people who look out for the little guys!
- Photos, text & video by Jacqueline Windh©
