Eggs, amplexing frogs and calling Assa in the Conondales

It had been a year since I was last in Conondale National Park and I was eagerly awaiting returning to the biodiversity hotspot! 40mm of rain earlier in the week added to my anticipation of what the frog life would be like whilst surveying with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Rangers; Rowena and Lesley. After negotiating the rutted dirt track to Booloumba Creek, we were not disappointed.

We heard and found many species along the creek – Great barred frogs (Mixophyes fasciolatus), Giant barred frogs (Mixophyes iteratus), Cascade treefrogs (Litoria pearsoniana), Tusked frogs (Adelotus brevis), Southern orange-eyed treefrogs (Litoria chloris) and, despite not finding any, the Australian marsupial frogs (Assa darlingtoni) were calling constantly. Rowena said she’d never heard so many calling before – at both monitoring sites. I’m yet to see this species, but was very pleased I heard and recorded their calls (see the Gallery page of the website to listen). Unfortunately a wanna-be storm overhead ended short our first monitoring, so we moved to the second site at Bundaroo Creek.

Great barred frogs in amplexus
Great barred frogs (Mixophyes fasciolatus) in amplexus
Giant Barred frogs
Giant Barred frog (Mixophyes iteratus) males hanging out.
Giant Barred Frog
Giant Barred frog (Mixophyes iteratus). Notice the nuptial pad on his inside finger? These are used to help grip onto the female during amplexus.
Southern orange-eyed treefrog
Southern orange-eyed treefrog (Litoria chloris).
Litoria chloris in amplexus
Southern orange-eyed treefrogs (Litoria chloris) in amplexus beneath the water.
Cascade treefrog
Cascade treefrog (Litoria pearsoniana) brown coloured individual.
Cascade treefrog
Cascade treefrog (Litoria pearsoniana) green coloured individual.
Tusked frog
Tusked frog (Adelotus brevis).
Litoria pearsoniana eggs
UPDATE: Southern orange-eyed treefrog (Litoria chloris) eggs. There were thousands of eggs in many of these rockpools.
Litoria pearsoniana amplexus
Cascade treefrogs (Litoria pearsoniana) in amplexus.
tadpoles
Probably Cascade treefrog (Litoria pearsoniana) tadpoles.

It was a ripper night and I look forward to more frogging adventures with the girls.

2 comments

  1. That’s a good variety of frogs that you guys found. I haven’t seen or heard the Australian Marsupial Frog (Assa darlingtoni) myself. I would be keen to go on one of the surveys in the Conondale National Park too during this season if that was possible. Last night a friend and I went with Eva actually to the Coles Creek and Traveston monitoring sites. The first time I have been on such a trip other than for my personal pleasure. A rewarding and interesting experience. We found a few Graceful Tree Frogs, numerous Eastern Dwarf Tree Frogs and heaps of Wilcox’s Tree Frogs. We saw one pair of Great Barred Frogs and they were in amplexus also. The variety of frogs you saw is much more impressive. Looking forward to meeting you in the near future.

    1. Yeah I can’t wait to finally see it!
      I’d like to get back out to Conondale NP this season to do some ‘freelance’ frogging, so I’ll let you know.
      Ah, I see. I’d been in contact with Eva earlier in the week and suspected she was heading out to those sites soon. It’s difficult sometimes cause Eva’s monitoring and other frog monitoring nights sometimes overlap (geez, these stressful decisions!). I’m really glad you had a good time out there with her and got to see a bit more than I’ve sometimes seen whilst frogging with her.
      Yes, indeed. Is it this coming week that you’re on holidays? Would like to get up there.

Leave a Reply to Jono Hooper Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *