Northern Green Frog, Lithobates clamitans melanota. Photo credit: AAron Capouellez.

The Pennsylvania-based nonprofit organization PA Woods and Forests received a $500 grant from Josh’s Frogs in 2024 to support their project, “Automated Acoustic Frog Species Recognition.” The project’s purpose is to develop a bioacoustic monitoring system to track frog populations as indicators of ecosystem health. Grant funding would provide recording equipment to gather audio data, which could then be used to train a machine-learning model for species identification. In the future, this highly-automated system will provide a non-invasive, long-term tool for monitoring environmental changes and supporting conservation efforts.

We’re happy to share that the project is coming along well! In August of 2025 we received a progress report from project lead and PA Woods and Forests board member Aaron Capouellez. His full report is below.

Project Overview

With support from Josh’s Frogs, we were able to purchase two acoustic monitoring devices along with four SD cards to launch our first large-scale frog and toad audio survey in Western Pennsylvania. The purpose of this project is to monitor vocal activity of native anurans, with a special focus on species of conservation and ecological interest.

A calling Eastern Gray Tree Frog, Hyla versicolor syn. Dryophytes versicolor. Photo credit: AAron Capouellez

Species Recorded to Date

Our recordings so far have successfully documented:

• American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus)
• Eastern Gray Tree Frog (Hyla versicolor)
• Northern Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans melanota)

Data Testing & Evaluation

Currently, we are in the testing and evaluation stage of the project. We are reviewing the collected audio files to determine:

• How much data we currently have for each target species.
• The clarity and consistency of calls recorded under different environmental conditions.
• How much additional data is needed to ensure strong representation of each species in the dataset.

This testing phase is critical for setting data quality standards and ensuring the long-term usability of recordings.

Future Applications

The recordings obtained through this project will serve as a foundation for multiple future research projects, including:

• Population monitoring — Tracking breeding activity and distribution of frog and toad populations in western Pennsylvania.
• Research continuity — By building an organized acoustic library now, we will streamline work for future researchers studying amphibian ecology in the region.

Acknowledgements

This project would not be possible without the support of Josh’s Frogs. The contribution of acoustic devices and storage capacity has directly enabled us to expand our research capabilities and document amphibian populations in new and innovative ways.

Together, we are not only conserving frogs and toads today but also building the tools and datasets needed to protect them for generations to come.

An American Toad, Anaxyrus  americanus, inspecting some of the devices used in this project. Photo credit: AAron Capouellez.