Where'd all these frogs come from?

September 20, 2007 10:38 PM

Vacationing in Roatan, Honduras for the past 10 days and up until yesterday hadn't seen a single frog. Last night, the frog croaking in the field outside my house was surprisingly loud. It literally sounds like thousands of frogs croaking at once. It's very cool. Today, saw frogs everywhere. Any frog experts know what kind of frogs these might be, why they were scarce until yesterday, and if it's normal for them to congregate in this fashion?

I've asked some locals, and they've shrugged it off as if it's no big deal. It seems to me that if it's a regular occurence, it would be the sort of thing one would hear about as a tourist, in a "if you're here in Late September, don't miss the crazy frog migration". They've started up again, and it's so loud, that if i was standing down on the road, i'd have to shout to be heard. My guess is that it's mating related, but any specific info would be great.

posted by billyfleetwood to Pets & Animals (3 answers total)

what do they look like?

tree frogs are very loud, and small, and cute, and bright. i don't know what they are called in honduras, but when my mom was growing up in puerto rico, they called it a coqui (pronounced "co-KEE".
posted by thinkingwoman at 4:31 AM on September 21, 2007

Did it rain yesterday? In Florida during the summer, we'll go days without hearing a single croak, but within a few hours of a rainstorm they'll be out by the tens of thousands, croaking at the tops of their little lungs, presumably taking advantage of the standing water on the ground to get some egg-laying done.
posted by saladin at 4:45 AM on September 21, 2007

Nibbles of information on Honduran frogs

Here
Here
And here.

I thought I'd find richer stuff than that, but unfortunately no. Still, if the photos in either of the first two links match your friends, you're done!
posted by SlyBevel at 5:12 PM on September 21, 2007