Tiny creature that almost vanished in the 1990s secretly released in Aussie national park
Their head keeper, Del Leong, said the release into the cold and wet Brindabella National Park, northwest of Canberra, felt 'nerve-wracking' because she'd watched each of the frogs grow up in the safe environment provided by the zoo.
'I've heard people talk about their child fleeing the coup and hoping they'll be okay, except I've got 544 of them,' she told Yahoo News, joking that her complete dedication to frogs means she has 'no life'.
Remarkably, Leong is able to recognise dozens of individuals because each frog has a unique stripe pattern like a human fingerprint.
'My favourite ones live here at the zoo. One has a cute, little heart shape on her side, and there's one that's got more yellow on her skin, so we call her Banana. I love her,' she said.
'I used to work in fashion, so I'm good at pattern recognition.'
Related: ☀️ Frogs could fall silent after 'scary' event
As each frog was released, it quickly vanished into the safety of its dense new environment. Because it's not breeding season, the male frogs weren't making their distinct 'squelching' call. So as Leong walked back to her car, it was quiet, and she had time to contemplate the threats they would now face in the wild.
The northern corroboree frog is listed as critically endangered and Leong feels like 'everything is against them'. Once released, the tiny 1.5 gram frogs face multiple threats, including feral animals and climate change.
Although its habitat is restricted to niche sub-alpine ranges in NSW and the ACT, the northern corroboree frog was considered abundant back in the 1980s. But the arrival of chytrid fungus, a deadly disease that destroys amphibian skin, killed off most of the frogs in the 1990s.
Northern corroboree frogs were lucky to survive the outbreak, as it's known to have led to the extinction of at least six amphibian species in Australia, and declines in 500 around the world. Today, scientists are working on ways to stop its spread. For instance, a group of scientists at Melbourne University are genetically modifying frogs to resist the disease.
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🥺 Silent extinctions occurring unreported across Australia
In the 1980s, kids all around Australia were familiar with cooroboree frogs because the southern species was featured on a 3-cent stamp. It lives in Kosciuszko National Park, and faces similar threats to its northern cousin, including feral deer and horses.
It's hoped future generations will continue to be able to see them in the wild, not just on stamps and in zoos. To ensure the captive breeding program is working, Leong and her team will return to the release site next year to see how many survived.
"When we survey them, the only way we can figure where they're at is to yell at them and hope the boys call back," she said.
"We call out 'yeah' or 'yeah frog' and they chirp back at you saying, please go away this is our territory. Then we can triangulate where they are."
The work to reintroduce the frogs into Brindabella National Park is coordinated by the NSW government's Saving our Species program, in collaboration with National Parks and Wildlife Services and Taronga Conservation Society Australia.
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