Green Tree Frog
Jodi Rowley
It’s typically rare to see a dead frog. Yet, we’ve received a flurry of emails from people coming across them in this truly unusual, and tragic, mass death event.
Clever frog.
Shutterstock/Martin Valigursky
The noise from the lungs drowns out other species’ calls, letting the females hear potential mates.
Erni/Shutterstock
Britain’s native amphibians are in steep decline thanks to wetlands disappearing and ponds drying up.
African clawed frog tadpoles in the laboratory.
Natasha Kruger
Tadpoles at the edge of the population are no more vulnerable than those at the centre.
The banjo frog, Limnodynastes dumerilii
Jodi Rowley
Not all frogs ‘ribbit’ — some sound like a motorbike changing gears or a tennis ball being hit. This summer, keep your eyes and ears out for these Aussie frogs.
A glasswing butterfly’s see-through wings help predators see right through them.
(Shutterstock)
Transparency is an evolved characteristic of some species to help them survive, even when predators are staring directly at them.
Jodi Rowley
Some 45 frog species, included some rare and threatened, were recorded calling after the fires.
Taronga Zoo
After the bushfires, we went looking for endangered corroboree frogs. Normally, they respond to our calls. But at some sites, the ponds were silent.
Anatolian water frogs (Pelophylax spp ) could become locally extinct in parts of Turkey due to over-harvesting as food.
Kerim Çiçek
Frogs are harvested as food by the millions every year. A new study shows that uncontrolled frog hunting could drive some populations to extinction by midcentury.
African clawed frogs are very easy to keep in the lab.They were readily adopted by scientists as a model research animal.
Author supplied
The African clawed frog is a notorious invader but it also takes some parasites with it to new regions.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Fish, frogs, turtles and platypus at major risk of extinction following the bushfires. So why aren’t they getting much attention?
Frog.
Acoustic monitoring is ideal for tracking the abundance of a species over time, because it has minimal impact on the species being monitored.
Many frogs, such as the red-eyed tree frog, are sought-after pets.
Andy Morffew/Wikimedia Commons
People sometimes release pets into the wild, resulting in biological invasions.
The African clawed frog.
Author supplied
What was particularly interesting about the responses of the tadpoles was that they were similar even through they had very different evolutionary histories with the three species we chose.
The conservation concern about these Mantidactylus frogs has been underestimated - until now.
Mark D. Scherz
The Red List ranks species based on how threatened they are. But it can be inaccurate.
The Eureka Prizes are often nicknamed Australia’s “science Oscars”.
Salty Dingo/Australian Museum
From cutting-edge research, to public education, journalism and even schoolkid scientists, Australia’s best science was on display at the annual Eureka Prizes.
The horned land frog (Sphenophryne cornuta ) carries babies on its back. New Guinea must be protected from the deadly chytrid fungus, or we could see around 100 frog species be wiped out.
The island of New Guinea is home to 6% of the world’s frogs, but if the deadly chytrid fungus invades it could cause a mass extinction.
Carnivorous bullfrog tadpoles don’t even spare their own.
Author supplied
A new study reveals that it’s not only adult bullfrogs that pose a threat but their tadpoles do, too.
The Mossy Red-eyed Frog is among hundreds of species threatened with extinction at the hands of chytrid fungus.
Jonathan Kolby/Honduras Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Center
Chytrid fungus has caused declines in 501 amphibian species, according to a new analysis. Most of the damage happened in the 1980s, before the fungus itself was even discovered.
An adult male “Mini mum”, one of the world’s smallest frogs, rests on a fingernail with room to spare.
Dr Andolalao Rakotoarison
The largest of these frogs could sit happily on your thumbnail. The smallest is just longer than a grain of rice.