HOP to it – it’s FrogID Week.
To help our endangered amphibians, the Australian Museum’s FrogID program is hosting Australia’s biggest frog count.
Citizen scientists across the nation are urged to head outside with their phones to capture frog calls using the free app.
Jodi Rowley, Australian Museum Curator of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Biology, said public help during FrogID Week was vital to collect all the information scientists need to track the health of Australian frog populations.
“There are frogs all over Australia – in remote areas, deserts, bushland, rainforests, on grazing land, in lakes and dams, on private properties, in suburban back gardens and in our busy cities – so we need everyone around the nation to listen for and record frog calls during FrogID Week. We need to collect as much information as possible to help the 240 species of frogs that live in this country.” said Dr Rowley.
She said the information gathered in the past 12 months has created an audio ‘map’ of Australian frogs, but there was still so much more to be done.
“FrogID Week is the next really important part of our program - the high number of recordings we hope to gather at the same time each year during FrogID Week will allow us to compare year-on-year how our frogs are coping so we can make informed conservation decisions,” said Dr Rowley.
“Frogs are good indicators of the health of the environment, as they are highly sensitive to changes on land and in the water, so understanding how healthy our frogs are also helps us track threats to biodiversity and the broader impact of change on the land, other native animals and even for our own communities.”
Some of Australia’s most vulnerable frog species include the Peppered Tree Frog, not seen since the 1970s, the Booroolong Frog, and the Green and Golden Bell Frog.
FrogID Week is on from November 9-18.
Details and to download the app HERE