http://www.listeningearth.com.au/blog/amphibian-fascinations-frogs-frogs-frogs-nature-sounds-album Bringing nature to you in sounds and images Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:37:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://www.listeningearth.com.au/blog/amphibian-fascinations-frogs-frogs-frogs-nature-sounds-album/comment-page-1#comment-1584 Michael Cunningham Sun, 13 Dec 2009 10:02:51 +0000 http://www.listeningearth.com.au/blog/amphibian-fascinations-frogs-frogs-frogs-nature-sounds-album#comment-1584 Hi, your comments are apt, frog calls are more-or-less hard-wired and not really like bird songs but I don't think this is not quite the full story. Frog calls often do vary with situation and motivation. Your example from Marsh Frogs looks like an antiphonic chorus in which individuals syncopate their calls to distinguish themselves from others. Each frog is calling at maximum volume trying to outdo his rivals. The differences in volume would be mainly due to distance from the microphone (as well as body size). There would have more individual variation in volume and regularity when calling alone or in a small hesitant group after disturbance. Striped Marsh Frogs are also a poor example because these very simple clicks are their full repertoire. There are plenty of frog species that use multiple motifs to create more complex calls - such as mixing male to male spacing motifs with the typical male to female mating calls. Some species, such as the Litoria fallax group, have many more variations and mix and match to create different calls from different individuals, no-one is really sure why. Also there are some species which seem to have really relaxed consistency constraints and vary from one call to the next, the African River Frogs do this with a constantly changing series of grunts, ticks and burps that sound like rocks rolling over each other in a stream. In any case, this really misses the point. For me the appeal of frog calls is in the diversity of sounds among species and their almost but not quite regular rhythm and tempo that creates a seemingly incessant chorus - that periodically stops abruptly and then slowly regains the score, species by species, individual by individual. Hi, your comments are apt, frog calls are more-or-less hard-wired and not really like bird songs but I don’t think this is not quite the full story. Frog calls often do vary with situation and motivation. Your example from Marsh Frogs looks like an antiphonic chorus in which individuals syncopate their calls to distinguish themselves from others. Each frog is calling at maximum volume trying to outdo his rivals. The differences in volume would be mainly due to distance from the microphone (as well as body size). There would have more individual variation in volume and regularity when calling alone or in a small hesitant group after disturbance. Striped Marsh Frogs are also a poor example because these very simple clicks are their full repertoire. There are plenty of frog species that use multiple motifs to create more complex calls – such as mixing male to male spacing motifs with the typical male to female mating calls. Some species, such as the Litoria fallax group, have many more variations and mix and match to create different calls from different individuals, no-one is really sure why. Also there are some species which seem to have really relaxed consistency constraints and vary from one call to the next, the African River Frogs do this with a constantly changing series of grunts, ticks and burps that sound like rocks rolling over each other in a stream. In any case, this really misses the point. For me the appeal of frog calls is in the diversity of sounds among species and their almost but not quite regular rhythm and tempo that creates a seemingly incessant chorus – that periodically stops abruptly and then slowly regains the score, species by species, individual by individual.

]]> http://www.listeningearth.com.au/blog/amphibian-fascinations-frogs-frogs-frogs-nature-sounds-album/comment-page-1#comment-1368 Walther Grube Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:35:27 +0000 http://www.listeningearth.com.au/blog/amphibian-fascinations-frogs-frogs-frogs-nature-sounds-album#comment-1368 This sound collection is very interesting! I'd like to hear some of it, just to compare to sounds of brazilian frogs. Some frogs here are incredible, by looking at the spectrograms you just wonder if it's art or what? I tell you, it IS art, nature art! This sound collection is very interesting! I’d like to hear some of it, just to compare to sounds of brazilian frogs. Some frogs here are incredible, by looking at the spectrograms you just wonder if it’s art or what? I tell you, it IS art, nature art!

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