On today’s World Frog Day, we’re proud to highlight the work being done by citizen scientists to monitor frog populations and keep track of the health of our waterways and ecosystems through Melbourne Water’s Frog Census App. Leesa Riley, Program Lead Community Connections at Melbourne Water says, "World Frog Day kicks off another ‘Frog Census month’ which is a great time to explore a range of sites for frogs and record their call. Frogs play a significant role in waterway and wetland ecosystems and are easily affected by changes to their environment. By helping us collect far more data than otherwise possible, you will be helping to shape decisions on waterway health.” Thanks to all the citizen scientists who have taken part, we’ve made some ribbeting discoveries: For the first time in 4 years, recordings of Growling Grass frogs were captured in the east of Melbourne. They have a distinctive growling call like an engine not quite starting. Records collected by citizen scientists are helping to track the spread of the Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog, also known as the banana box frog because they hitch a ride from Queensland to Victoria - often in boxes of bananas! We don't know whether the spread of Eastern Dwarf Tree Frogs is impacting local populations so it's important to monitor. Want to start recording frogs in your area? You don’t need to be a frog expert to participate – all you need is to download the FrogCensus App available on iOS and Android. Hop to it! Images: Peter Robertson
Andrew Kelly
5mo
love those frogs!
Video Producer, Construction Timelapse Specialist
5moThank you for this insight 😀