Frogs

Our love-hate relationship with creatures vital to our ecosystem

Some people love frogs and toads; others are yet to be seduced. It is spring and, after good rain, our dam is alive each day with a chorus of croaks and bonks, trills and rattles.

A few nights ago I recorded these ‘conversations’ on my phone and identified them with the Australian Museum’s FrogID app. An email soon confirmed four different species – a welcome sign that they have surfaced again this spring. By matching calls with weather and habitat, FrogID is helping scientists understand how frogs are responding to our changing environments.

If you are not a frog lover, why should you care?

Frogs and toads are key indicators of healthy ecosystems. Their permeable skins make them highly vulnerable to chemical pollution, so declining frog populations are Nature’s warning that waterways are in trouble.

Frogs eat many insects, including mosquitoes and other freshwater insects, and in turn they are food for larger animals such as snakes, lizards and birds. Remove frogs and the whole ecosystem is shaken.

Frogs also secrete defensive chemicals that protect their skins from harmful bacteria and fungi – substances that may hold clues to future life-saving antibiotics. But destroy forests or pollute and degrade waterways and these possibilities vanish.

Frogs and toads are a vital part of our natural environments and yet they are the most threatened group of animals on Earth. Of more than 8,000 species worldwide, many are in decline. Australia has over 250 known species, almost all found nowhere else.

So when I hear those croaks and bonks, rattles and trills in our dam and wildlife garden, I feel fortunate there are frogs here at all. Although some species are flourishing, overall numbers have dropped sharply since the 1980s and four Australian species are already extinct.

The data gathered through FrogID shows where frogs are thriving and where they are not – including tracking the spread of the invasive Cane Toad in northern Australia.

Why not explore the FrogID link and become a citizen scientist for our frogs and toads? There are many urgent reasons to save them and, who knows, frogs might even help to save us.

Felicity Spear