My recording lifelist 2017 2018May 2018 Update

It's funny how you start a "project" without really knowing it is to become a "project".   

I had always been interested in herps (reptiles and amphibians) since I was a small boy and I had always been fascinated by the sounds of the outdoors.  I did start reading about recording wildlife/natural sounds in the early 1980s, but never pursued it because recording gear was expensive and onerous to take in the field.

Then in 2010 gear had not only come down in price (and my budget had increased since my undergrad days!), but it had become more field hardy and accessible.  So I dove in and bought a microphone (Sennheiser ME66/K6 and an Olympus LS-10 recorder).  I started off recording a few birds around my house then, since I'm a herp guy, expanded naturally to try a few frog calls.

Once I got a few recordings of common species around me (Blanchard's Cricket Frogs, Gulf Coast Toads, Great Plains Narrow-mouthed Toads) and I began to get comfortable with the process of recording and editing recordings, I thought 
"I wonder if I can get all the species that occur in my area?".  After a season of this with some success, I moved on to the idea of trying to get all the species that occur in my state.

And so the project began.  As I started collecting recordings from Texas, I had to opportunity to travel outside the boundaries of the state and the country so I took my recording gear with me....and my obsession began.

So now my "goal" is to try and record as many species as I can.  Yes there are good recordings of frog calls from many developed parts of the world, but they aren't always easy to access or can be expensive to buy.   My goal was to provide a source of free recordings that people could use to help ID their frogs and toads.   And mostly, I just enjoy doing it! 😁

So here's my progress so far.  I'm actually amazed I've managed to get this much stuff posted!   

Family	Genus	Number of species recorded so far
Bufonidae
	Anaxyrus	10
	Incilius	3
	Rhinella	2
Hylidae
	Acris	3
	Boana	1
	Dendropsophus	1
	Hyla	8
	Pseudacris	6
	Osteopilus	1
	Scinax	2
	Smilisca	2
	Triprion	1
Pelodryadidae
	Litoria	6
	Nyctimystes	1
	Ranoidea	4
Microhylidae
	Austrochaperina	2
	Hypopachus	1
	Gastrophryne	2
Myobatrachidae
	Crinia	1
	Limnodynastes	2
Craugastoridae
	Craugastor	1
	Pristimantis	2
Eleutherodactylidae
	Diasporus	1
	Eleutherodactylus	9
Centrolenidae
	Hyalinobatrachium	1
Leptodactylidae
	Leptodactylus	6
Ranidae
	Lithobates	8
Dendrobatidae
	Oophaga	1
Aromobatidae
	Mannophryne	2
Rhinophrynidae
	Rhinophrynus	1
Scaphiopodidae
	Scaphiopus	2
	Spea	2

Total # Families = 14
Total # Genera = 32
Total # Species = 95


* Technically, I have recorded an eighth toad in this genus, the Oak Toad (A. quercicus), but I somehow deleted that recording from that trip?  I found several of the others (Hyla femoralis, Lithobates grylio, and Pseudacris ocularis) from the same night, just not those Oak Toads!  I guess another trip to Florida is in my future since I need a few more species from there as well.

** 2018 EDIT - I just got back from that Florida trip and added 6 new species and got better recordings of a seventh:
Anaxyrus quercicus (Oak Toad) - and I didn't delete them this time!
Anaxyrus terrestris (Southern Toad) 
Eleutherodactylus planirostris (Greenhouse Frog)
Pseudacris nigrita (Southern Chorus Frog)
Osteopilus septentrionalis (Cuban Treefrog)
Acris crepitans (Northern Cricket Frog) - from Mississippi
Hyla gratiosa (Barking Treefrog)

So I've got some new blog posts coming soon.

There are also some species I have recorded that are not on this list.  On a trip to Amazonian Ecuador, I recorded at least a dozen species of frogs calling but my recorder was "lost" (under some rather sketchy conditions) part way through the trip. I know I lost recordings of:
Polka-dot Treefrog (Hypsiboas punctatus)
Smoky Jungle Frog (Leptodactylus pentadactylus)
Amazon Milk Frog (Trachycephalus resinifictrix) 
And just for the ones I had identified before I "lost" the recorder, I had recorded many others.  Not only did I lose these species, but I had no recording device with me during our stay in the Andean cloud forests for the following week.  I probably missed 20+ species. 😡😢

There are currently over 7000 species of frogs and toads recognized in the world.  At my current rate of recording I should be approaching getting them all somewhere around my 665th birthday.   But of course, by the time I am 665 years old, many of these frogs will be extinct 😢 and so will I.

But, I guess I can just keep plodding along and see where it ends up?

© Chris Harrison 2017