Talking all things frogs with Michele Lockwood
An amplecting pair of Eastern Stony Creek Frogs (Litoria wilcoxii)
Michele Lockwood grew up in NYC but has now lived in the Northern Rivers for about 20 years. As a kid she always felt there was something missing from life – an unknown element that she longed to connect with but wasn’t quite sure what it was. For a long time, surfing and the ocean filled the void but she still found herself searching “for something even purer”.
Mish began to observe the world around her home- stalking birds, listening for frogs and noting when the Eucalypts flowered. She took notice of the forest structure and the leaf shapes of plants and how the sun moved as the seasons passed. She explains it as “seeing outside myself” and the connection was beginning to form. After going to Uni with an urge to formalise these curiosities Mish eventually found herself researching endangered frogs. Here’s her thoughts on how everything has unravelled:
“It has been a rewarding journey that has come with a feeling of immense responsibility. I’m here for the challenge.”
We sat down with Mish to satiate our curiosity (and hopefully yours too) about all things frogs. Here’s the result…
The very handsome but unfortunately Endangered, Giant Barred Frog (Mixophyes iteratus)
What’s your favourite thing about frogs?
My favourite thing about frogs is that you never know where you are going to find them. They can turn up unexpectantly in all sorts of places- the toilet, a bunch of bananas, in a house plant or the cow’s trough. I have even found an Endangered frog species quite happily living at my degraded creek!
How do you go on a frog hunt in your own backyard?
When looking for animals is it usually helpful to close your mouth and open your eyes. Most frog species are active in the warmer months, especially after rain, so that would be the best time to start. And since most frogs are nocturnal, it helps to have a strong torch or headlamp to spot their eyeshine as you move through the garden. Listen for any calling males, and quietly walk towards that sound to see if you can spot it. Download the free FrogID app to help identify species by sight or by call; you can even submit recordings to be verified and added to a national database.
Creating a small frog pond is an easy and super fun way to encourage frogs to live in your garden; there are many simple online tutorials on how to do this. I’ve created a really basic one and have had two different species lay eggs that have successfully metamorphosed into proper frogs! It would be worth a try!
Why shouldn’t we touch frogs?
What can our hands/skin do to them?
What is the safest way to move a frog?
There are many reasons we shouldn’t touch or handle frogs. Firstly, frog skin is delicate and permeable, they breathe and absorb moisture through their skin. By handling or touching frogs we could transmit diseases to them that have the potential to spread through an entire population. Handling can also cause the animal stress and discomfort. As a frog researcher, I am required to follow very strict hygiene and handling protocols when measuring frogs in the field due to their overall sensitivity.
If you find a frog on the road or somewhere it may be unsafe, you can gently coax off the road by slowly walking behind it (in the direction the frog was travelling) or if absolutely necessary you can use a stick to tap the ground near it to get it moving to a safe place.
The indefatigable Green Tree Frog (Litoria caerulea)
How do we avoid harming frogs when we go swimming in our waterways?
It’s always best to stick to the more frequented and popular swimming holes when wanting to cool off in summer because while we love exploring new freshwater swim spots, we can unknowingly disturb their habitat, transmit diseases, parasites and /or carry weed seeds on our shoes and car tires. Sites that are more commonly trafficked by visitors and have worn in walking paths are less likely to be inhabited by sensitive or endangered species.
Species like frogs, snakes and lizards can use also use leaf litter and rocks to shelter in during the day, so while we may not see any animals while trekking through bush, we could unknowingly be disturbing these sensitive critters in their diurnal refuges.
How do we tell the difference between a frog and a cane toad?
There are several key differences that distinguish cane toads from any of our native species. The top three are:
Cane toads have parotoid glands located behind their heads/above their forearms. These glands can excrete a milky white poisonous substance and can be puffed up if the toad feels threatened.
Cane toads have a distinctly emphasised bony ridge over their eyes that meets above their nose and have a horizontal pupil.
Cane toads lack toe pads on the end of their fingers and have unwebbed hands. Their feet are also partially webbed.
Additionally, cane toad eggs are laid in long, connected strands that look something like a string of black pearls. They are laid in shallow water amongst vegetation and can hatch within 24 hours. The tadpoles are jet black and school together in large groups but can otherwise be difficult to distinguish from native tadpoles.
We’ve had HEAPS of rain this year thanks to the La Niña weather pattern.
Has that been good for all the frogs out there?
Yes, after last year’s drought and subsequent Black Summer fires, La Niña has provided a much needed reprieve of rain and renewal for everyone, including frogs. The main way the rain has been beneficial to frogs is by topping up waterways, dams and wetlands where frogs are likely to reproduce.
This is especially important for aquatic tadpoles that take a long time to metamorphose from their tadpole stage to becoming a proper frog. The species I study, the Giant Barred Frog (Mixophyes iteratus) can take up to 40 weeks to grow from an egg to a frog, so they require streams with permanent water to breed in, and with all the rain this season, these creeks are easier to come by.
During times of drought or severe hot and dry weather, frogs want to avoid desiccation (drying out) so they tend to lay low in refuges or under leaf litter where their skin can stay moist, which can also limit their availability to feed and breed. This in turn, can impact their numbers. So, we can thank the La Niña weather pattern for the beneficial conditions it has provided for the frogs to be out and about, calling, feeding and finding mates; and securing populations into the future.
Are there any threats to frogs from climate change that we already know about?
Yes, I believe that every species on the planet has been affected in some way by climate change, frogs especially!
The population of the iconic Southern Corroboree Frog (Pseudophryne corroboree) is an example of this. These tiny yellow and black frogs have a very limited range consisting of sub-alpine areas within Kosciuszko National Park, NSW. This species is at risk of disappearing in the wild due a number of pressures including a warming climate and changed weather patterns, causing hotter temperatures and increased periods of drought. In an effort to prolong and protect this species in the “wild”, enclosures were created in Kosciuszko NP to prevent the frogs from the drought and heat by providing a moist refuge.
During the Black Summer fires, a crew of threatened species biologists were flown into the NP in an effort to save this critical population from perishing in the fires but unfortunately three out of four of their enclosures had already been burnt and many of the frogs didn’t survive. However, the crew at Taronga Zoo have been working to breed the Southern Corroboree Frog in captivity and have hopes to restock the enclosures once they can be rebuilt.
Yet another species of Endangered Barred Frog, this one is Fleay’s Barred Frog (Mixophyes fleayi)
All photos courtesy of Michele Lockwood.