Turtle Journal

Mating Pair of Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) 

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Spring Peeper Pair from Outer Cape Cod Vernal Pool

Turtle Journal hiked a conservation trail in South Wellfleet Friday to search a series of vernal pools and swampy ponds where we have always found the very loudest and most cacophonous springtime serenades.  Even in bright sunshine, with temperatures dipping back into the 40s, only a few, isolated peepers screeched for amorous attention.  Luckily for us, Sue Wieber Nourse spotted a fast moving critter zigzagging through the mucky leaf matter at the bottom of a quickly evaporaping vernal pool.  Lo and behold, we discovered a mating pair of secretive spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer).

Spring Peeper Pair — Not Even a Handful

Truth to tell, and we always try to tell the truth unless it gets in the way of a good story; we didn’t notice the pairing until we examined it up close and personal.  This twosome had so closely embraced that they moved like one with the female providing all the locomotive power as illustrated in the following video clip.

Spring Peeper Mating Pair on Outer Cape Cod

Notice how tightly the two peepers are bound together and how powerfully the female springs forward with the male clinging to her back for dear life. 

Female Spring Peeper

Spring Peepers are small “chorus” frogs whose mating calls we recognize each March as the beginning of spring serenade in wetlands across the Great White North.   They are brown colored with a darker “X” on their back (dorsal side) which yields the Latin species name crucifer (cross bearer).

Spring Peepers in Conubial Bliss

Females are a bit larger than the males as illustrated in our pair pictured above.  Unsurprisingly, it is the male of the species that makes the loud, raucous mating calls that we recognize as the peeper chorus each spring.  “Won’t someone love me?” they screech at the top of their lungs.

 

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