A Chipping Sparrow and a Gray Frog
You wouldn’t think this frog and chipping sparrow have a lot in common--other than they both live in the Asylum Lake Preserve and they depend on the protection of their habitat here to survive. But they share another trait--they both change their calls or songs when their environment is filled with the noise that we humans make, especially traffic noise.
Since the Asylum Lake Preserve has in fact a lot of background noise, often a whole lot of background noise, it’s a good place to find out about those changes that our animal friends make in something so basic as their calls to each other.
Two graduate assistants in the WMU Biology Department working with WMU Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences Sharon Gill are comparing the calls of the animals at Asylum Lake Preserve with those at a nearby preserve, one which is far away from “anthropogenic noise” (the noise we create).
It’s one of the adjustments animals have to make to our presence that we don't often think about.