My wife and I hear frogs outside every night, and every few minutes or

[Dembadon]

My wife and I hear frogs outside every night, and every few minutes or so, they'll all stop croaking for reasons I have yet to identify. Last night I kept listening for a noise, time-interval, anything that would trigger their silence; I couldn't identify a pattern. The only pattern I noticed is that they all stop at once. I never heard a rogue frog croaking on its own after the halt of a croaking session, however, I did notice that a single frog only needed to croak 2-3 times before the whole group started-up again.

Does anyone know why they all stop at once, and why I never hear any of them croaking alone? Is there an "alpha frog" who decides when the croaking stops?

 

[Pythagorean]

something I found, don't know for sure though:

Even before the snow has completely melted from the edges of ponds and wetlands, one can hear its duck-like quacking sound, an indication that they are in their brief breeding season in early to mid-April.
[...]
To hear and see Wood Frogs, one must approach a pond very stealthily, and listen for the duck-like croaking, which can be heard for long distances and may include hundreds of individuals. If one frog sets off an alarm croak, all of the frogs will instantly stop croaking and disappear into the leaves and mud.

If that happens, stand still for a few minutes and disguise your presence by lowering yourself out of view or by standing behind a shrub. Eventually, the urgency of completely the breeding cycle will compel the frogs to start croaking again; first one and then another will sing and then the whole pond will once again be a din of frog sound.

http://www.vermontnaturenews.org/amphibians.htm

 

[hypatia]

They croak like this ..OMFGSNAKE!

 

[rhody]

This may apply to larger organisms than bacteria, in the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum_sensing#Examples". I suspect there are multiple triggers that cause the frogs to go silent, with predators at the top of the list, but there may be others that are lower on the sensing end of a frogs anatomy not clearly understood. The opposite can be true as well, at a certain threshold for instance coordinated response can be observed as in the case of the bacteria in the video. In any event, the video is interesting, and IMHO, the subject fascinating.

Rhody... neeedeeep...

 

[Evo]

They croak like this ..OMFGSNAKE!

 

[physics girl phd]

They croak like this ..OMFGSNAKE!

I was thinking along the lines of "OMFGRACCOON!" (Along the same lines, but we've seen one of these around lately, triggering our security lighting at night as he heads for the squirrel-feeder.)

But is it smart to be the first one to return croaking, to get the girl in his bravado (but risk being eaten before breeding), or to wait until the whole gang is croaking, but face the competition? Hmm.

 

[Dembadon]

something I found, don't know for sure though:



http://www.vermontnaturenews.org/amphibians.htm

Aha! Thanks for the link.

They croak like this ..OMFGSNAKE!

That's great, Hypatia.

This may apply to larger organisms than bacteria, in the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum_sensing#Examples". I suspect there are multiple triggers that cause the frogs to go silent, with predators at the top of the list, but there may be others that are lower on the sensing end of a frogs anatomy not clearly understood. The opposite can be true as well, at a certain threshold for instance coordinated response can be observed as in the case of the bacteria in the video. In any event, the video is interesting, and IMHO, the subject fascinating.

Rhody... neeedeeep...

Thanks for the info and links, Rhody. I'll check 'em out this evening.