On cool nights we heard the cheeps of spring peepers, on warmer ones the banjo-like strums of bronze frogs. We also recognized a distant, mournful train whistle. The next day we confirmed that the distinct crash we heard during a windy night was that of a dead pine tree that had stood near the froglogger station. We may never know the identity of other sounds on the tape. The call was recorded on two tape segments during a rainy night.
Gopher frogs are so rare they are known to be in only a handful of locations in South Carolina.
In some years during the last two decades none has been seen or heard anywhere in the state for the entire year. The froglogger had confirmed the gopher frog's occurrence at a wetland where it was formerly unknown. Frogloggers are destined to become a major environmental sampling tool. To elevate the technology further, Mike Dorcas is working with Ontario Hydro Technologies, a company developing computer software to identify frog calls. For example, a tape from a froglogger can be digitized into a computer sound file.