Pigfrog © John Cassani

Monitoring Protocols 

1. Establishing a new route: Determine 12 monitoring locations or stops at least 0.5 miles apart. Road intersections are typically used for stop locations.  Ten of these locations or stops will become the permanent route with the two remaining for backup if a location or stop has to be changed in the future. Note: it is often difficult to hear frogs calling when lots of traffic is present near the monitoring stop. 

2. Carefully describe the location of each stop and indicate its location on a detailed road map. If possible indicate the GPS latitude and longitude for each stop. Make several copies of the information and mail the original to the network coordinator. 

3. If you are the route leader you will be responsible for recording data (forms provided) for each monitoring date. Please complete the data forms as completely as possible. Route leaders are also responsible for coordinating their route monitoring team. This involves calling team members to remind them of monitoring dates and coordinating a place to meet for car-pooling if necessary. The completed data forms should be copied and the original immediately sent to the network coordinator. 

4. Check the newspaper for times of sunset and plan to arrive at the first stop 30 minutes after sunset. 

5. When arriving at a stop, wait one minute before you start recording information. After one minute begin recording frog species detected for three minutes. Use your portable CD player to confirm the frog calls that you hear if necessary. Finish recording the other information such as temperature and wind speed required at each stop before proceeding to the next stop. 

6. Of the ten stops that you monitor, start at a different stop (randomly determined) for each date monitored. 

Equipment checklist: thermometer, digital stopwatch, portable CD player, frog call CD,  clipboard, pencil (please do not use ink), data forms, flashlight, bug spray, rain gear, first aid kit (optional), cell phone (optional).