On Sunday the QLD Frog Society Inc and Mooloolah River Waterwatch and Landcare held their second frog workshop in four months due to popular demand. I came along to lend a hand and of course enjoy the great BBQ dinner provided afterwards! There were about 20 adults and eight kids who attended and once the sun went down most stayed behind to put their newly-learnt ID skills into practice as we went frogging. During the recent floods the Mooloolah River (along which we did some frogging) rose several metres and as a result had scoured the bank and riparian zone of virtually all leaf litter, leaving behind only sand deposited from the flood. Hence, we were unsure how many Mixophyes iteratus (Giant Barred Frogs) we’d find.
Turns out that we found seven M. iteratus, some of which were calling. This was encouraging!
Once we managed to pull everyone away from this exciting find, we headed to a neighbour’s property where we always seem to be guaranteed Litoria tyleri (Laughing Treefrogs), Lit. peronii (Emerald-spotted Treefrogs) and L. fallax (Eastern Sedgefrogs). Indeed, they were there and calling en masse!
I also came across Litoria fallax (Eastern Sedgefrog) males engaged in an interesting behaviour, one which scientists have observed but understand little about. What they do hypothesise is that this might be a form of territorial behaviour, occurring when male L. fallax are calling within close proximity of each other, and will climb over each other (as observed below). ‘Leg flicking’, ‘foot flagging’ and ‘hand-waving’ are other such signalling behaviours where a frog will extend and flick out their back leg, then pull it in again, called ‘visual signalling’. So far (in Australia) this behaviour has also been observed in L. pearsoniana (Cascade Treefrogs) and L. cooloolensis (Cooloola Sedgefrog). This is a very interesting area of research!
There was lots of positive feedback from all who attended the night and I look forward to the next workshop to be held later this year in November.