Why are frogs so loud? How can they jump so far? And why do toads pee on you when you pick them up? (What would you do if some big creature grabbed you from behind and lifted you off the ground?) We are fascinated by amphibians. For many of us, as children, toads and frogs were our first encounter with wildlife. Now, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources website invites us to “Come Join the Frog and Toad Call Survey” and help count Iowa’s amphibians.

Okay, it sounds a little geeky to assume the public would be that excited about listening for toads and frogs, but already the DNR says it has more volunteers than it can handle for this year. They have been conducting the survey for 35 years, collecting data on the state’s amphibians in over 2,200 wetlands with volunteers slogging through swamps, shivering in the cold and dark with their clipboards, noting the different calls, intensity and the location of the frogs. In 2023, they collected data from 851 sites around Iowa. The most common species they found were the American Toad, Chorus frogs (these can be heard from a mile away!), Cricket frogs and the Eastern Gray Treefrog (you see these stuck like Gummy bears to window sills and handrails).

Amphibians are amazing. There are over 6,000 known species of frogs and toads, found on every continent except Antarctica. They’ve been around for 200 million years and lived right alongside the dinosaurs.

Frogs are great jumpers, leaping 20 times their own length. The Sharp-Nosed frog of South Africa can jump 44 times its length! The Costa Rican tree frog has webbed fingers allowing it to glide from tree to tree. The Goliath Frog can grow up to a foot long and weigh more than seven pounds—as much as a newborn baby! (Imagine seeing one of them in a baby carriage, wearing one of those little knit hats!) The biggest toad ever found was named Toadzilla. This Cane Toad from Australia weighed almost six pounds. The world’s smallest frog, found in Papua New Guinea, is about the size of a housefly, named the Paedophryne amanuensis (I bet the locals have a better name for it). Did you know that frogs use their eyes to help them swallow? When they eat, frogs pull their eyeballs into the roof of their mouth to push food into their throat. Frogs can be loud. How loud are they? The Gray Tree Frog’s call is over 108 decibels—louder than a chainsaw or a live rock band.

So why bother to do a survey of Iowa frogs and toads? “Amphibians are one of the most imperiled, in danger groups of animals in the world,” IDNR representative Stephanie Shepherd told KCRG. “They’re pretty sensitive to environmental changes.” Records show that almost 41 percent of amphibian species on Earth are facing extinction. We need to be kind to our amphibian friends. And the next time you pick up a cute little croaker and it pees on you, remember—I toad you so.