Participants receive a copy of an audio tape of more than twenty West Central Florida frogs and toads and send in reports when they hear the calls, most often during the summer rainy season. Click here for an update. Otter Watch is another volunteer program for our area. Participants send reports to Jim Beever, a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, whenever they observe an otter. At our Annual Meeting in January, biologist Jim Beever reported on the results of last year's efforts by the twenty volunteer Frog Listeners in the Englewood, Florida, area who sent him information, which will be used as a baseline.
Frogs are good bio-indicators of environmental health.
They have an aquatic and a terrestrial life span, respond rather quickly to pollutants in water and are sensitive to changes in the water supply. The most commonly heard tree frog was the green tree frog. Spadefoot and narrow-mouthed toad calls were reported. The spring peeper is now documented here. The rarest species is the gopher frog, a species of special concern.