For the last four years I have been studying the Pine Barrens treefrog (Hyla andersonii) for my PhD research at Florida State University. My research requires sampling of frogs in the field and then returning to the lab to analyze their DNA. As this species has a very strange distribution (see the map for all counties, in orange, where this species has been found), my field work occurs across the eastern USA from Florida and Alabama, to North and South Carolina, and even New Jersey.
Thursday was a busy day while I finished packing and cleaning the car before driving up to South Carolina for the first night in the field this year.
Although the weather was just ok, we still found some frogs (even two females!). It was really exciting for me to find females that were gravid (filled with eggs) because it indicates a field site may actually have a breeding population of treefrogs.
One of the males we caught was also a recapture from last year. I cut two toes from each frog I collect as a tissue sample from which I can extract DNA. The toes will grow back, but in the meantime they serve as a mark of capture so I can keep track of which frog is which from year to year. I also use the yellow leg coloration as a double-check. Each frog has a unique pattern, like a fingerprint.
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