ABSTRACT
Anurans, consisting of frogs and toads, are common inhabitants of ponds on all continents except Antarctica. Censusing anurans is usually done by mark-recapture methods, although indirect techniques such as egg counts and relative abundance indexes are useful. Some metamorphosed anurans must be sampled at night using a headlamp in order to give viable data, i.e., treefrogs and woodfrogs during the breeding season. Conversion of population numbers to biomass data can be made by weighing representative samples of each age class and plotting the data on a length-frequency graph. Samples can be made up of individuals in the mark-recapture study or from nearby populations. For temporary inhabitants which use the pond for a short, intensive breeding period, an indirect estimate of total numbers can be made by sampling for total number of egg masses.
