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Canberra Today 18°/23° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Endangered frog fights for survival

THE critically endangered Spotted Tree Frog has surprised researchers by showing outstanding survival rates and by breeding sooner than expected following the frogs reintroduction into Kosciusko National Park.

Spotted Tree Frog reintroduced into Kosciusko National Park.
This month researchers have revealed that 50 per cent of four hundred frogs reintroduced three years ago have survived and are breeding.

Senior threatened species officer at the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), David Hunter is thrilled by the latest survey results after previous attempts to reintroduce this species into the park have failed.

“We took a calculated risk when we reintroduced the frogs, bred in captivity at the Amphibian Research Centre in Melbourne, by placing them at a site that is outside their known range,” Dr Hunter says.

“But this experiment is paying off and the survival rate for the frogs at this new site is extremely encouraging not only for these individuals but the entire species.

“The frogs introduced at other sites in Kosciuszko National Park in the past have been heavily impacted by ‘Amphibian Chytrid Fungus’ a fatal pathogen that is the kryptonite of frogs.

The endangered frog, also known as ‘Litoria spenceri’, was extinct in the wild in 2001 in NSW, a result of the Amphibian Chytrid Fungus wiping out the last known wild population.

It’s a major breakthrough for frog conservation in Australia and around the world to see the introduced population at Kosciuszko avoid the disease.

“We think the recent success is largely due to the fact that the new re-introduction site was selected to be much warmer than the frogs’ previous known location,” Dr Hunter says.

“The disease flourishes in cooler, moist environments so in this case it seems we have found the right conditions for the frogs to not only fight off the disease, but also to breed – this may be the only hope for maintaining the species in NSW, and helping them fight back from extinction.

“We are quietly confident our approach will prove successful in the long term and that this research will provide management options for other frog species also threatened with extinction by this killer pathogen.”

Information via the OEH website.

 

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