ABOUT 10 per cent or 21 of Australia’s 212 frog species are found only in the Wet Tropics, with the region home to 54 frog species in total.
Although there are no native toads in Australia, just the introduced cane toad, we have a wide range of frog types such as tree frogs, burrowing, nursery and water-holding frogs, the latter encasing themselves in a “plastic bag” during the dry season.
These amphibians have a unique life cycle in which they spend part of their life as tadpoles, usually in water, before changing into frogs and climbing out on to the land.
The Wet Tropics’ nursery frogs are tiny frogs that spend their tadpole stage inside the egg, emerging as fully metamorphosed frogs.
The relatively large eggs have a special anti-fungal coating to help them survive in the wet environment.
The high altitude populations of the northern barred frog produce Australia’s largest and longest lived tadpoles, up to 15cm long, which can take two years to metamorph into frogs.
Other tadpoles, like the Australian lacelid, have suctorial mouths that enable them to grip on to rocks and other surfaces in the fast flowing water where they live.
Because frogs breathe partly through their skin, they are a good indicator of pollution.
Some have very specific environmental needs and are at risk from habitat loss, temperature changes and disease.
Thankfully, one frog that was believed extinct for many years, the armoured mistfrog, was spotted in the Far North a few years ago.
There are groups in the Far North that study these amazing amphibians such as the Tablelands Frog Club and the Frog Decline Reversal Project Inc, which runs an adopt-a-frog campaign.
With each frog species having a different call, you only have to listen carefully on a rainy night to see which ones live in your area.
The male frog uses a vocal sac to make these sounds when he is looking for a mate so the female frog can find him.
Unfortunately, this means other creatures that eat frogs, like snakes and birds, can also locate him.
So some frogs have the ability to “throw” their voices like a ventriloquist.
HANDY WEBSITES
Wet Tropics Management Authority
Australian Rainforest Foundation
Animals of Queensland, Queensland Museum
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