What Frog Songs Tell Us

Multimedia Published : Sep 07, 2020 Updated : Sep 29, 2023
Frogs sing every monsoon to charm a mate, but new disturbances are drowning out their songs
Frogs sing every monsoon to charm a mate, but new disturbances are drowning out their songs


Frogs and toads sing every monsoon to charm a mate. But their songs are also indicators of the health of our rainforests and other ecosystems they thrive in. Ecologist Seshadri KS tells us why we must pay close attention to their calls and why a world without their chorus is a world at risk.

Click here to read his piece about four endemic species of gliding frogs that live, love, and leap in the trees and ponds of the Western Ghats.

Credits

Photos and videos: Seshadri KS, Pradeep Hegde, Saurabh Sawant, Shyam siddarth / CC BY-SA 4.0, Dinesh Valke from Thane, India / CC BY-SA 2.0, David V. Raju / CC BY-SA 4.0

Acoustics Courtesy Mandookavani: An acoustic guide to the frogs and toads of Western Ghats. Authors: R Badrinath, Seshadri KS, Ramit S, KV Gururaja. Publication date 2015, Publisher: Gubbi Labs

About the contributor

Sustain Team

Sustain Team

We are a driven group of people from diverse backgrounds, bound by an abiding love for India’s natural world.

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Forests Tropical evergreen forests Mountains, hills, and plateaus South Karnataka Amphibians Frogs and toads Frogs Monsoon Frog calls Western ghats

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