Tennessee Amphibian Monitoring Program

The Tennessee Amphibian Monitoring Program (TAMP) is a joint venture between the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and the Middle Tennessee State University Center for Environmental Education.

There are 22 species of frogs and toads in Tennessee. With the data gathered from TAMP, we hope to better understand the distribution and relative abundance of each species.

TAMP volunteers drive routes that were selected by the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (NAAMP) and are randomly placed across Tennessee. Ten listening stations are established along each route.

Listening stations are placed at least 0.5 miles apart, and are placed where wetland habitat exists. Four listening runs are made each year. Each runs begins at least 30 minutes after sunset and finishes before 1:00am. There is a minimum temperature for each listening run.

Each anuran chorus that is heard is assigned a calling index.

1. Calls isolated, not overlapping
2. Some calls overlapping
3. Calls continuous, overlapping

All data is entered into a Tennessee database in GIS. The data can be searched and queried by route number, date, calling index or other combination of factors.

New county records are documented with a digital recording. New records will be submitted to the Tennessee Amphibian Atlas and Herpetological Review to be published. 

For more information about TAMP visit the TAMP website or contact State Coordinator Bob English (tel 615.210.8774).

Resources on the Web

• TAMP
• Tennessee Amphibian Atlas
• LEAPS

All Images © 2006 Bob English, Leaps