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I was out on my deck tonight, listening to the
numerous
frogs (Pseudacris regilla), in full chorus, vying for a
mate.
You will hear them croaking loudly, trying to out-croak the
others. I suddenly heard a very, very loud croak.
Looking
around, I saw nothing. I continued listening and
discovered
a
small green frog, no larger than the end of my
thumb, under
the deck of my lawnmower. The lawnmower deck
made his
voice much larger than the neighboring toads.
(What some guys won’t do to lure a female)
I would like to make a small plastic house with an
attached
megaphone for my little green troubadours. They
could
crawl inside and belt out their mating call. Every
little
female (Pseudacris regilla) for miles around would
hear
them and then I would have even more froggy songs
at night
after the babies are born.
Pseudacris regilla call
http://www.californ...regilla.sounds.html
Caution! Auto-plays frog calls [Klaatu, Mar 03 2013]
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That would be cute :-) [+] |
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Yes, this amphibtheatre must be built. |
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I know an Italian pianist whose friend, Georgio, was/is (?) an organist and a total perfectionist to the point of mental illness. This tale is vastly improved by a softly spoken Italilan accent, but I'm afraid I'll have to leave it to your imagination. |
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Georgio was recording each evening for a while in a chapel on a lake in Italy - one had to take a boat to get to it. One evening he had got to a particularly quiet piece. Unfortunately it was that time of year when the frogs started making a lot of noise (insert Italianated frog impression here). He played the piece a few times, but he never managed a whole run of it without the frogs in the background. Apparently he was furious and rowed off home, probably for a bottle of wine or two. |
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The next evening he returned, bringing with him quite a lot of potassium bromide. This was tipped into the lake, and by the time he was sitting at the organ ready to record, there was total silence. He played the piece beautifully and was just feeling satisfied holding the long, quiet last note when, 'whoooo-whooooo' came from an owl in the roof somewhere. |
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Apparently this was one of the last straws for Georgio's poor mind which, I gather, was never the same again. |
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I can't promise the story holds up to full scientific analysis of how many rowing-boatsful of bromide are needed... etc, but that's the story as I heard it. I like the idea though [+] |
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[+] love it! Maybe could have a pagoda-type design to accomodate the megaphone sticking out of the roof! |
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I don't know if my little green friends have the capacity
to think, but lately there seems to be a war of
technology going on. It started in my neighbor's tree. A
Northern Pacific Treefrog started by climbing up into
the taller branches to send his "hey babes, look at me"
croaking into the far reaches of the neighborhood. |
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Then my frog figured out that the deck of my mower
made a great croak enhancer. |
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Last night, around 01:00 AM, I awoke to a frog in my
bedroom (or, at least it sounded that way). The
downspout for my rain gutter runs down the corner of
my bedroom to a PVC connector that then runs under
my garden, and then to the curb. This little green
genius crawled in from the curb, up the PVC drain and
into my downspout. |
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I don't know if treefrogs can think, but they seem to be
learning ingenious ways to boost their chances of
securing a mate. |
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[2fries] I wish I had thought of that for a title for the
idea. |
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[TomP] That story stands on its own. No scientific
analysis required. |
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[xandram] After last night, I'm tempted to make it in
the shape of a frog with a gramaphone horn coming
out of its arse. But, a pagoda *would* make it more
ornamental in a garden. |
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Funny, now that you mention it, the woodpeckers around here have taken to pecking the street-light enclosures because they are so much louder than the trees. |
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That not evolution behavior, that cuz woodpeckers be
dumb. |
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Well, all those repeated head impacts have to have some effect... |
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Eventually, you'd wind up with a population of
female
frogs that only responded to these amplified
vocalizations. Then one year you send your froggy
amplifiers off to the froggy amplifier service
engineer and forget to reinstall them in time.
Next
year, no frogs. Flies flourish in the frogless
environment, allowing swifts to evolve to
enormous sizes. The giant swifts, having
exhausted the abundance of flies, turn to small
mammals instead. Mouse and rat numbers
plummet, leading to widespread starvation of the
local snake population which, crazed by lack of
food and terrorized by giant rat-eating swifts,
invade human dwellings in unprecendented and
unpostcedented numbers. |
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You're sowing the seeds of an environmental
cataclysm. |
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^solved by snake-eating gorillas which freeze to death in winter. |
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//that cuz woodpeckers be dumb// |
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If'n they's dumb, then they's dumb on a schedule cuz they only do it come mating season. |
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//Eventually, you'd wind up with a population of female frogs that only responded to these amplified vocalizations ... You're sowing the seeds of an environmental cataclysm.// |
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Yes but, how else can we know for sure? |
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That's exactly what they said before they introduced
chipmunks to Latvia. Ever wondered why there
aren't any whales in Latvia? No, thought not. |
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I missed this somehow. Bravo, wonderful you froggie
you. |
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Snake-eating gorillas which freeze to death in winter? That
needs its own idea. And possibly it's own halfbakery
category. Public: Snake nuisance: Self-limiting deterrent |
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It's a brilliant idea. I just added another crumb to
the two croissants, so hope you're seeing this, and
continuing to post ideas. [+] |
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