Identifrog

IdentiFrog is all about raising peoples awareness levels about the frogs across North Australia and issues associated with frog populations. The core activity is a frog census where people take pictures and make audio recordings of the frogs calling in their area and send them in to allow us to identify the frogs by their calls and help us to understand their distribution.  You can do this through the web address to upload information or email it to us at frogwatch

This wet season (or next rains in the arid zone)we are asking people to be aware of the frogs in their area and to attempt to record them by making sound recordings and taking pictures and uploading them to the frogwatch site.  New smartphones and many cameras can record pictures as well as sounds.

Identification is not always easy as frogs are very hard to find, change colour, vary in colour from one individual to the next, look similar to other species, and immature frogs of one species may look like adults of another species. 

The best form of identification for frogs is to listen to the calls.  Recordings of the calls for most of the known NT species are on the Frogwatch web-site at http://www.frogwatch.org.au .  As the rainy season approaches frogs begin to emerge and as soon as the first rains create pools of water the calling will start.

We are asking people to add their own observations onto the web-site as a part of the project.  To do this you will need to register on the website.  Click on the new user registration link.   The system will send you a password (via your email address) to allow you to get in.  Once you have a log in you will be able to add sighting records to the site.

frogs (which are seen as good environmental indicator species - a bit like the proverbial canary in a coal mine), but in the Northern Territory and Kimberley we are still learning about how many frogs we have and, indeed, are still discovering new species!

Priority issues

The distribution of many frog species in the NT is unclear.  We would really like to get a clearer picture of the range of some of these species. 

For example the Splendid Tree Frog, Litoria Splendida, Where does its distribution stop in the top end?  It is found throughout the Kimberly and in the NT as far as Bradshaw, but does it come into the sandstone systems around the .

Flat-headed Frog Limnodynastes depressus

Spotted Grass frog  Limnodynastes tasmaniensis

Distribution of the Wood Frog Rana damelii in North East Arhnemland.

Daly Waters frog Cyclorana maculosa  and Water holding Frog Cyclorana platycephalus  and other Cyclorana species throughout the Barkly area.

Northern Territory Frog Sphenophrene adelphe

Alexandria Toadlet Uperoleia orientalis