Scientists are warning a species of mountain frog only discovered this year could be extinct by 2055 despite residing in a rainforest with the same World Heritage status as the Great Barrier Reef.
Southern Cross University senior lecturer and project lead, David Newell, said six of the seven species of mountain frogs lived solely in the cool, upland mountain rainforests within the Gondwana World Heritage-listed national parks around the New South Wales/Queensland border.
One of the species, Mount Ballow mountain frog, was only discovered earlier this year.
Dr Newell said the frogs [Philoria] were an ancient species that had evolved alongside the rainforest and were effectively being stranded on an "island in the sky" due to habitat loss.
"What's particularly disturbing is the very narrow niche in which these frogs live is being impacted by climate change and they're completely losing their niche," he said.
Like the Great Barrier Reef, Dr Newell said the ecosystem was in a precarious position which could lead to a World Heritage "In Danger" classification.
"We are seeing similar things happening in our Gondwana World Heritage rainforest and it's particularly disturbing," he said.
"These are completely unique ecosystems, they are recognised as World Heritage Properties and they should be celebrated just like our Great Barrier Reef.
"If we lose these frogs, we're essentially losing some of the key world value heritages."
The study, published in Scientific Reports, found two of the seven species (Philoria kundagungan and Philoria richmondensis) were on the path to extinction by 2055 due to climate change.
While the study modelled two species of mountain frogs, the researchers believed the results would apply to all of the species due to similarities in their ecology.
Lead author Liam Bolitho said up to 91 per cent of the frog's ecological niche would be lost under a worst-case scenario of three degrees warming.
"Even under current projections of warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius, we expect that these frogs will not survive in half of their current mountain habitats," he said.
"Frogs are particularly vulnerable to climate change because they require moisture for breeding, have a bi-phasic life cycles and are explicitly linked to environmental temperature."
Dr Newell said the Black Summer bushfires in late 2019 also destroyed about 30 per cent of the mountain frog's habitat.
He said the fires had also led to more wild pigs which could destroy the frog's habitat in a short period of time.
"Without urgent intervention these frogs will be lost forever within our lifetimes," Dr Newell said.
Southern Cross University has been working with WWF Australia and a number of government agencies to breed the frogs in captivity to help bolster remaining populations.
