You Can Make a Difference! Resources: How to Get Started Texas Amphibian Watch offers you the Monitoring Packet – A free monitoring chance to help conserve amphibians in Texas packet, with complete instructions, is and to learn more about the amphibians available from TPWD. around you. Volunteers play an important role in being our eyes and ears in Texas. Frog Call CD – A CD of the calls of Texas You can get involved by: frogs and toads, TAW Guide to the Calls of Frogs and Toads in Texas, is available for $5. Being an Amphibian Spotter – watching Make check payable to TPWD Nongame for amphibians wherever you go. Fund. Adopting a Frog Pond – picking a site that Training Workshops – Texas Amphibian you will visit over time to watch (and listen) Watch offers several workshops throughout for changes in populations. the state each year to help to better familiar- ize you with local amphibians. Malformation Monitoring – examining frogs and toads at your site to look for any Educator Materials – TPWD has several abnormalities. free resources designed to teach elementary and secondary school children about amphib- Conducting a Texas Frog and Toad ians and amphibian monitoring. Survey – you will establish listening stops on a roadside route that is part of a national monitoring system. Contact Information For more information about Texas Where to Learn More Amphibian Watch, please contact: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/amphibians/ (800) 792-1112 ext. 7011 The TPWD Web site provides information and monitoring materials needed for Texas Texas Parks and Wildlife Department South Amphibian Watch. 3000 IH 35 South, Suite 100 Watch Watch Texas Austin, TX 78704 Texas www.zo.utexas.edu/research/txherps This site, provided by the University of leeann.linam@ tpwd.state.tx.us Texas Amphibian Watch 3000 IH 35 , Suite 100 Texas, provides descriptions and pictures of Austin, Texas 78704 all amphibians and reptiles in the state. It www.tpwd.state.tx.us/amphibians/ also has recordings of calls for most of the frogs and toads. PWD BR W7000-492 (11/05) Bullfrogs A Life Linked to Water Where Have all the Frogs Gone? At an international conference in 1989, ! The term “amphibian” means “two lives,”describing a life on both land and water. scientists from all over the world became ! All amphibian species require water or moist habitats in which to lay their eggs and raise alarmed at what appeared to be dramatic What is an Amphibian? their young. declines in some amphibian populations. ! Even after metamorphosis, land-dwelling amphibians utilize moisture to obtain some of their Then, in 1995, a group of school children in oxygen through their semi-permeable skin. Minnesota were the first to call attention to Wart-covered, cold-blooded, slimy – these ! an alarming rate of malformations in some stereotypes don’t pay fair tribute to this Some salamanders remain aquatic throughout their life, using gills to breathe. ! frog populations. Research since that time amazing group of animals. Amphibians, Many amphibian species are sensitive to water quality changes, and may serve as indicators of water quality issues. has proposed that about one third of the one of the five classes of vertebrates, show amphibian species on earth are declining, an amazing variety of forms and lifestyles apparently due to a variety of interacting developed as they pioneered life on land. Toad Metamorphosis causes, including: The approximately 4,600 species in the world today can be divided into three groups: ! Habitat destruction Anura: the frogs and toads ! Habitat modification due to climate shifts Caudata: the salamanders ! Increases in UV radiation ! Gymnophonia: the caecilians Aquatic contaminants such as pesticides and pharmaceuticals ! Increases in parasites and disease, perhaps Texas Amphibians as a results of habitat changes Texas has an interesting array of about Rio Grande Leopard frog 30 species of salamanders and over 40 anurans, ranging in diversity from the colorless cave-dwelling Texas Blind Salaman- der to the plate-sized Marine Toad of South Texas to the eel-like Amphiuma of East Texas streams. Diversity in Texas is especially high due to the rich aquatic habitats in East Texas, Why Watch Amphibians? the unique spring-fed ecosystems of the Texas Hill Country, the presence of subtropical With their links to aquatic and terrestrial habitats and species in South Texas and the habitats and their semi-permeable skin, isolated wetland habitats of West Texas. amphibians may serve as an important barometer of the health of environments we Barton Springs all share. Global declines have led to global Salamander calls for a better understanding of changes in Frog and toad species undergo “metamorphosis,” or a change in form, as they develop. amphibian populations. Through Texas In most species, the larvae or tadpoles are aquatic, using gills to breathe, while the adults Amphibian Watch, Texans can play a part in are terrestrial and use lungs to breathe. ensuring that amphibian populations in Texas are healthy, while learning more about these interesting animals!.