They moan, hum, whistle and click, and can be found almost everywhere, from the neighbourhood pond to the most remote outback dunny.
From Friday to 17 November, people across the country are encouraged to take part in FrogID week, Australia’s biggest frog count. The annual event, now in its seventh year, aims to collect thousands of recordings via an app, with the data providing a snapshot of how frogs are faring across the country.
Australia has at least 250 frog species, according to Dr Jodi Rowley, Australian Museum amphibian specialist and lead scientist of FrogID. They range from giant banjo frogs – “huge, round burrowing frogs that spend most of their life underground” – to tiny javelin frogs, “as big as your pinky nail”.
Each has its own unique call, so “frogs are, essentially, yelling out what species they are” whether they are in a rainforest, an alpine area or the outback, Rowley said.
“Just the other day, we got a recording of a frog in a remote part of the NT and that was calling from a toilet bowl,” she said. That red tree frog, captured using the FrogID app, was the only scientific record of a frog within 30km.
For those joining in for the first time, Rowley suggests listening just after dark, near fresh water such as a creek, wetland or pond, and particularly after rain.
“I use the term fresh water loosely,” she said. “If I want to find a frog in the outback, I’ll often lift the lid off the cistern and it’s rammed with frogs, which is fantastic. I’ve had them in the bowl as well.”
Frogs can also be found in populated areas. “FrogID has helped us realise that actually there are more frogs than we thought in cities and in urban environments,” Rowley said.
In Perth, moaning frogs – thought to be rare – can be heard in suburban back yards, calling mournfully from underground.
In Sydney and Melbourne, the insect-like call of the common eastern froglet is often recorded, despite being “near impossible to find”, according to Rowley.
Meanwhile the striped marsh frog, which sounds “like a tennis ball being hit”, frequents ponds across Sydney and Brisbane.
Vicky Mills didn’t know much about frogs before joining FrogID week in 2021 but wound up being that year’s “top frogger” anyway.
She was amazed to discover the variety and number of frogs near her west Brisbane home. To date she has recorded more than 1,170 “verified frogs” on the FrogID app, although her favourite is Ethel, an old green tree frog that appears outside her laundry every year.
Initially, Mills set off at night with torches, a phone and a stick – “to get the spider webs out of the way” – and recorded plenty of crickets and insects. Using feedback from the app, she soon learned which noises were frogs.
“I was surprised how many there were in the bush,” she said. “How when you looked for them, they were there.”
FrogID week was a special time to go out “traipsing in the bush” at night-time, she said – listening to the sounds of nature and contributing to a nationwide citizen science project.
Along with raising the profile of frogs, Rowley said the thousands of calls recorded during the week would help scientists better understand them, particularly as one in five Australian frog species were threatened.
“One of the biggest challenges, when it comes to making sure we don’t lose any more Australia’s frogs, is that we just don’t know that much about them.”
