The effect of weather on the relative volume of chorusing Spring Peepers (Hyla crucifer).

Abstract

Male spring peepers (Hyla crucifer) prefer to produce advertisement calls on nights with ideal weather conditions. We set out to determine these conditions by taping peeper choruses from a single wooded marsh just south of the Maple River near Pellston, Mi, and recording the weather conditions over a three week period starting in mid May. Air temperature was found to have a negative correlation with the volume of chorusing males during our study, while humidity showed a positive correlation. Time of sunset was also found to have a significant effect on chorus volume; however, wind speed and barometric pressure were found to have no correlation with the relative number of chorusing males. Male peepers call when certain weather conditions are more favorable, but no single condition seems to be a determining factor. Rather, all weather conditions taken into account seem to determine the relative number of chorusing males at a given time.