Listening to frog calls:

• Litoria tyleri (Tyler’s Tree Frog) making a short cackling or drawn out ‘laughing” sound. They sound a lot like the Peron’s Tree Frog and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between the two.
• Litoria peronii (Peron’s Tree Frog) also has a cackling / jackhammer call that is has a downward inflection at the end.

• Litoria fallax (‘Fallax’ or ‘Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog’) “reeek-pip-pip” sound, like a high pitched Guiro instrument or zipper; making a high-pitched “zip” followed by smaller chirps.

At 2:00min you see a Litoria aurea – Green and Golden Bell Frog!!! Notice the bright blue colouring on the legs.

These are collected to record their weight and length. They are also swabbed for Chytrid fungus, micro-chip, have a tissue biopsy, checked for eggs, sex, condition and any scratches of note before being released.

The video ends with some water monitoring. I was shown that you should rinse the the cap out with the water in the pond before testing. Care also needs to be taken to clean and check samplings between ponds to avoid passing on the invasive Gambusia fish between ponds.

This image of a male Green and Golden Bell Frog has distinctive and dark nuptial pad on his thumbs. These help him grab onto the females, and the slight yellow colouration of the neck can help determine his sex.