For the past few years I have been going out at night in May to record the calls of American Toads (Anaxyrus americanus) and Leopard Frogs (Lithobates pipiens) by the Eramosa River. I used to live much closer to the river and I could hear the songs from my window at night. When I heard those songs, I knew it was time to go record, and that the radio show that week was going to be the calls of the Anurans.

The problem was that lately, it has been pretty quiet on the home front. Maybe it was a bit too chilly for the Anurans to sing, or the rain has prevented me from bringing my recorders out, lest they get destroyed. But there have also been some really good nights, quite suitable for toad and frog song, but still it was quiet but for the Canada Geese (Branta canadensis). What was going on?

Turns out that the frogs just aren’t in the river where they usually are, probably due to an oil spill last April in the spot where I usually go record. I ended up going to a small wetland with a friend and there we recorded a different species, the Northern Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans melanota) calling in a small Cattail (Typha sp.) swamp.

There’s a profound beauty in allowing the non-human world to articulate themselves, and to give language voice, sharing their expression on platforms often dominated by our human-centric narratives. Collaborating with other life forms for my show allows me to fill in some details here and there from my books, but really, the other life has other language to carry the show and I don’t need to interfere.

It really is a gift to listen in on these non-human conversations, and I think we should practice that listening as much as possible. I recognize that traipsing about the river at night is not a sport everyone can enjoy; it may not be safe or may not be fun, but getting the chance to tune into the voices and songs of other animals is definitely a chance to learn. By offering our platforms to amplify the voices of other beings, we can not only expand our awareness of the world, but I believe it helps to promote their selfhood and agency, and remind us all of the inherent worth and value of all the others who take up space, and make place on the lands, and in the waters, we share. And when it comes to us humans, by practicing the art of listening, we are also working to kick at the bounds which isolate us from the rest of the world.

Listen in and hear what the Green Frogs have to say.

To learn more :
Herpetology (3rd ed.) by Laurie J. Vitt and Janalee P. Caldwell. Elsevier, 2009.