Quank!Craw!Whunk! First field guide to Tassie's vocal frog species
20 Feb 2003
HOBART: If you're travelling through Tasmania and hear a banjo-like 'bong-bong' from ponds, lagoons or dams - then you're listening to the eastern banjo frog, otherwise known as the pobblebonk frog.
However, if you hear a rapid call (took-tok-tok-tok) which sounds like a ping-pong ball dropped on wood, then that's the moss froglet - a small brown and black frog that walks rather than hops.
WWF-Australia's Frogs! conservation program has published the first field guide to Tasmania's eleven frog species. The pocket-sized waterproof guide features photographs of each species, distribution maps, a summary of each frog's distinctive features as well as their calling behaviour and habitat.
Each page also has a seasonality wheel which provides the times when frog enthusiasts are most likely to find eggs, tadpoles and the calling males of each species.
Dr Karyl Michaels, WWF-Australia Frogs! Tasmanian coordinator, is a Hobart-based ecologist who has spent almost a year compiling A Field Guide to Tasmanian Frogs! She says her enthusiasm for frogs can be traced to her childhood in Darwin, when she used to collect tadpoles, hatch them in the laundry and "have frogs hopping all over the house."
Her favourite Tasmanian frog is the brown tree frog ( Litoria ewingii ) - a species which is often found in suburban gardens and can be detected by its cricket-like call (ree-ree-ree-ree-ree).
"It's the cute little frog you'll often see climbing up windows after moths and insects or hanging out in your garden pot plants," says Dr Michaels.
Another intriguing Tasmanian species is the moss froglet - one of the few frogs that doesn't have a tadpole stage and hatches from an egg. There's also the Tasmania tree frog, which has a curry like smell and a duck-like call - quank-quank-quank.
Dr Michaels says the new field guide is designed to encourage Tasmanians - and visiting frog enthusiasts from other states - to become actively involved in frog conservation.
"It is a user-friendly guide and you don't need a biology degree to understand or use it," she says.
The guide is free but there is a catch - Dr Michaels wants to recruit volunteers to help monitor Tasmania's frog populations and needs more 'frog seekers' to listen and record frog calls in their area.
"We need more information about frog distribution throughout Tasmania and we are hoping people will use the field guide to identify frogs and pass on the information to WWF," she says.
Dr Michaels is currently organising a state-wide survey to look for two autumn breeding frogs - the smooth froglet and the southern toadlet. Member of the public are welcome to join the survey, which is scheduled for late April. She is also conducting Frog Frenzy workshops for teachers, advising on how to "put fogs on the school curriculum."
Copies of A Field Guide to Tasmanian Frogs! can be obtained from Karyl.Michaels@bigpond.com
The Frogs! program in Tasmania is part of the WWF-Australia Frogs! conservation partnership with Rio Tinto. Comalco Aluminium (Bell Bay) Limited, a member of the Rio Tinto Group, is an active participant in the WWF-Australia Frogs! conservation program in Tasmania.
