© 2024 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
LIVE BLOG: Updates on Hurricane Milton

A week of rain in Florida brings out the frogs, finally

A still body of water with leaves on its surface. Behind it is a wall and greenery.
Molly Duerig
/
Central Florida Public Media
Rising waters and wet conditions signal it's breeding time for amphibians

Dr. Edwin Everham monitors frog populations and is a professor of ecology at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Heavy rains and storms in Central and South Florida caused widespread flooding, flight cancellations, and triggered a state of emergency this week.

Despite the dangers, the heavy rains did help with drought conditions in South and Central Florida. And after a long silence, out came the frogs.

Win Everham is an ecologist who monitors frog populations.

"I'm feeling particularly in the last three to five years, that one of the manifestations of climate change locally is that we're not necessarily getting less rain. We're just getting it in bigger slugs. I've heard a lot of the meteorologists talk about, we're seeing like, these three days is what we normally get for June as a whole," he said.

"Frogs are able to survive during the dry season, they can find refugia that will allow them to adjust. So they've been there. But they aren't going to put their energy into calling until they know that the conditions are right for them to be able to reproduce. Why go to the bar and try to pick up a date when it's not going to do any good, right? So this is a signal to them, that it's a good time to make babies.

"Sometimes, one calling like, triggers the rest of them to call, because it's really males that are trying to say, 'I'm a better person to date.'

"People who aren't from here think that the seasons don't change in Florida. It's just because they're not paying attention. You know, seasons change. It's just subtle.

"One sign of this is when the rains come back and the frogs start to call. It reminds me of up north, on that first good spring day when the sun comes out, and everybody says, 'Oh, spring is here!' Right? So when I hear them in that cacophony, it's — summer's here.

There's a poem by William Stafford, and he's got a line in there where he says, ‘The frogs are singing their national anthem, again.’ And then the next line is, ‘I never knew a ditch could hold so much joy.’"

I cover health and K-12 education – two topics that have overlapped a lot since the pandemic began.
You Count on Us, We Count on You: Donate to WUSF to support free, accessible journalism for yourself and the community.