April 27, 2008 - Snoring Frogs

Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

Most of us know someone who snores during their sleep. According to the Mayo Clinic, more than one-third of adults snore at least a few nights each week. Few of us snore while we are awake or while underwater unlike pickerel frogs. These medium-sized brown frogs with two rows of dark, rectangular markings on their backs become active when water temperatures reach the upper 50s. Then the males begin calling to attract females. They inflate two vocal sacs and produce a reverberant snore while underwater. From April into May males snore away from slow-moving water of streams, springs, ponds and marshes, advertising for females. By summer pickerel frogs wander some distance from water. Beware of handling one if you find it. Their skin secretions are particularly irritating to us and toxic to some predators.

This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.