Skip to Main Content

Peter Narins finds that the calls of coqui frogs have changed due to warming temperatures.

Publication: The Guardian

UCLA Expert: Peter Narins: Professor, Integrative Biology and Physiology, UCLA Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Member, UCLA Brain Research Institute

Synopsis: Narins has been studying frog croaks for 23 years. While recording the sounds along the slopes of El Yunque mountain in Puerto Rico, he and his team found that the calls of coqui frogs changed due to warming temperatures.

UCLA News: Narins said: “Coquí that produced short, high-pitched calls at high rates lived near the base of the mountain, while the calls of animals living near the mountain’s peak were longer, lower-pitched, and repeated less frequently.” The frogs appear to be decreasing in size at warmer temperatures, which causes their croaks to become high pitched. If the trends continue, the heat could become too much for the sensitive amphibians to survive successfully.

Read more at The Guardian.