Caught on camera – a significant population of Growling Grass Frogs at Mt Burr Swamp

A few weeks ago, with my trusty assistant Dale by my side, we went for a late night frog search at Mt Burr Swamp.

After months of occasional reports of calling on site, it was time to see once and for all just how many Growling Grass Frogs (aka Southern Bell Frog or Litoria raniformis) we could find out there, and – crucially – whether they’d had any luck breeding with the restoration of water levels within the swamp.

It’s fair to say that after a slow start, we weren’t disappointed!

Two and half hours later, we’d counted 96 Growlers, and had also seen clear and common evidence of breeding, with a large number of smaller frogs and metamorphs (that is, frogs with legs but still with their tadpole tails) also encountered. So only one season in, we can say with great certainty that Mt Burr Swamp is providing critical breeding habitat for this species – habitat and site conditions that will continue to improve for the species as our restoration plans unfold over the years ahead. As a nationally threatened species that has disappeared from so many parts of the region, this is obviously great news so early into our restoration journey.

Here are a just few of the frogs caught on camera, to give you a taste of the action…