In February some friends and I went frogging near the town of Theodore. They’d had heaps of rain recently, so we figured the frogs would be out in force. On the way to Theodore, we stopped at a rivier to look for turtles.
A saw-shelled turtle (Elseya latisternum).
Before we even got to Theodore we found a green-striped burrowing frog (the species we really wanted to see) hopping around on the road. We figured that was a good sign. We also found some new holland frogs on the road.
A New Holland frog (Cyclorana novaehollandiae).
After unpacking our gear, we headed back out in search of frogs. Unfortunately the only things we found were cane toads (Bufo marinus), a couple more new holland frogs, and an awful lot of black-striped wallabies (Macropus dorsalis). No snakes, and no green-stripes.
One of many cane toads (Bufo marinus) we saw.
Black-striped wallaby (Macropus dorsalis).
Black-striped wallaby (Macropus dorsalis).
The next day we headed into town to see if there were any likely looking frog spots. There was a lot of water laying around as there had been sporadic showers since the major dumping on Australia Day. We found a couple of sites that looked like they might have frogs in them. Later that night we headed back to these sites. Along the way I gave everyone a bit of a shock as I wildly swerved the troopy off the road after having seen on the road a small black object that looked suspiciously like snake. We all piled out of the car to have a look, but my pseudo-snake was nowhere to be seen.
We arrived at our first likely looking frog spot. We could hear heaps of frogs calling in a ditch just a few metres off the road, but it was behind a fence. We didn’t want to frog on private property without the land holder’s permission, so we started looking around on the other side of the road where there was still a lot of water on the ground in what looked like a swamp. Within a few minutes team Sara and Nat had nabbed the first green-stripe. But for the next 30 or so minutes we found nothing but cane toads. We could hear the green-stripes calling, but no matter how far we walked they always sounded like they were off in the distance.
All four of us continued to walk towards where we thought our quarry was calling from. We came to a water-filled ditch that ran alongside an abandoned railway. While walking along this ditch out luck finally started to change. We started catching quite a few green-stripes, and saw a few other amphibian species as well.
Emerald-spotted tree frog (Litoria peronii).
Emerald-spotted tree frog (Litoria peronii).
Emerald-spotted tree frog (Litoria peronii).
Emerald-spotted tree frog (Litoria peronii).
Broad Palmed Rocketfrog (Litoria latopalmata).
Broad Palmed Rocketfrog (Litoria latopalmata).
Cane toad (Bufo marinus) calling. Note the aesthetically pleasing stick in the foreground.
Ornate burrowing frog (Opisthodon ornatus).
Green tree frog (Litoria caerulea) on a railway track.
The next night we headed down to the same swamp. It was a bit colder and much windier this night, and we only saw six green-stripes. We decided to head back to some other areas of water we had seen along the road. We pulled up at the first flooded paddock, wound the window down and were nearly deafened by the noise. There must have been *thousands* of male frogs out there, all calling at the top of their little throat sac, hoping to meet a sexy female frog and reproduce before burying themselves when the waters dried out. The loudest frogs seemed to be short-footed burrowing frogs (Cyclorana brevipes), but we could hear some green-stripes in there too. We all piled out of the car and got to work. You had to be very careful where you trod, because the little brevipes were so intent on calling they wouldn’t get out of your way. This spot was frog central. We saw:
Ornate burrowing frog (Opisthodon ornatus).
Ornate burrowing frog (Opisthodon ornatus).
New Holland frog (Cyclorana novaehollandiae) calling.
Toadlet (Uperoleia sp.).
Toadlet (Uperoleia sp.).
Toadlets (Uperoleia sp.) in amplexus.
Naked treefrog (Litoria rubella).
Naked treefrog (Litoria rubella) amplexus.
Green tree frog (Litoria caerulea). This one had a dark top and green legs.
Green tree frog (Litoria caerulea) calling.
Green tree frog (Litoria caerulea) amplexus.
Pobblebonk (Limnodynastes terraereginae).
Salmon-striped frog (Limnodynastes salmini).
Spotted marsh frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis).
Short-footed frog (Cyclorana brevipes) calling.
Short-footed frog (Cyclorana brevipes) amplexus.
Short-footed frog (Cyclorana brevipes) amplexus.
Knife-footed Frog (Cyclorana cultripes) amplexus.
At last! Some green-striped burrowing frogs ( Cyclorana alboguttata ). These ones are in amplexus.
Hi Stewart,
I just stumbled across your website and I absolutely love it. I’m particularly interested in frogs and I’m the voluntary Coordinator of the Qld Frog Society for Rockhampton and Central Qld. Could I please be added to your updates list?
Thanks,
Bethlea
Greetings, and thank you for the excellent photos. I live in Alaska, but my son and his two daughters live in NSW. I very much wanted to see if C. brevipes were as beautiful as their painting in Tyler & Knight’s Field Guide. I see they’re even more beautiful.
I come to Australia almost every year to see my son and granddaughters. Only Australian frogs I’ve identified in the field so far have been Lynmodynastes peronii and Litoria revelata. Have seen a few other frogs but haven’t gotten close enough for positive ID.
Was to me incredibly bizarre to discover that L. peronii call from beneath rocks, under bark/soil etc. Most American frogs don’t do that, and I wasn’t expecting it. First time I triangulated a calling L. peronii I was standing nearly on top of it and STILL couldn’t see it–he was calling from beneath a layer of wood-chip mulch!
Only one species where I live–Rana sylvatica. They are, however, quite beautiful. Superficially resemble L. peronii. And they have an amazing biochemical mechanism (two processes working together, actually) that enables them to survive freezing. I’ve observed this personally.
Thanks again for the wonderful photos!
Sincerely,
Al-Hajj F. H. Minshall
Hi Frederick,
Thanks for the kinds words. My more recent photos are a lot better than these early ones, but I’m finding less and less time to update my blog.
A fair few of our frogs call from cover, which makes tracking them down all the more fun. I’ve only ever gone frogging in the USA during a very dry summer, so I haven’t heard any of your frogs calling. My sister and her family live in Texas, so I’ve got a good excuse for plenty of future trips over there.