It’s FrogID Week once again, and the water that is covering the Western Plains could make it one of the best seasons for frog hunting yet. 

For those who’ve missed it, FrogID Week (11-20 November) is the slimier version of bird watching, where people around Australia are called to Australia’s Biggest Frog Count to better understand frog distribution and population health across the continent. 

Using the FrogID app, locals are urged to take to their own backyards to record the ribbit you hear in the roof, the water pipe and the tank, helping to identify what frog life you have in your local area. 

The week aims to monitor Australia’s frogs over time and understand how frogs and their ecosystems are responding to threats such as climate change, habitat loss and disease. 

Calls across the Western Plains have found that local populations are alive and thriving, taking advantage of wet weather and environmental flows to hatch a new generation. 

In 2019, scientists were unable to find any evidence of frog breeding at Macquarie Marshes monitoring sites. 

Now with water all around us, Department of Environment Western NSW Conservation Project Officer Joanne Ocock said that you don’t need to stick to just rivers to find them. 

“Common species like the spotted marsh frog, barking marsh frog, and eastern sign-bearing froglet, aren’t seen by people very often as they tend to stay in damp areas around creeks, dams, waterholes, swamps and flooded paddocks. As the temperature increases and those creeks and waterholes fill up, they’ll be the most common species people hear,” Ms Ocock said.

Ms Ocock said that in rainy conditions its tree frogs, marsh frogs and burrowing frog species - such as the crucifix frog - that you’ll be most likely to spot or hear in the local area. 

“Summer storms where it rains during the day filling waterholes and wetlands and then stays warm into the early evening, those are the times where you get the most species active and calling,” she said.

Environment Minister James Griffin said that breeding activity has been detected at multiple sites in the Macquarie Marshes following 3 years of drought, with frogs heard calling for mates throughout the wetland system. 

“'Six frog species, which depend on water flows in the wetlands, had been heard calling during the November surveys. Scientists from the Department of Planning and Environment visited 14 sites and heard frogs calling at 12 of them,” Minister Griffin said.  

Not only is it a positive sign of local frog life, but an indicator of wetland recovery since years of drought. 

IMAGE: Australian Museum

Amphibian biologist Dr Jodi Rowley said that the Frog ID app has been an important asset in a time where 40 per cent of the world’s amphibian species are threatened or extinct. 

“FrogID has created more biodiversity data than we’ve ever had on frogs. Even more important is what that data tells us about environmental health since frogs are so sensitive to environmental change,” Dr Rowley said. 

Contributors to the growing data pool of frogs around Australia could become a Top Frogger, and be in the running to win a prize of up to $235, ending November 20.