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Scientific Outcomes of FrogID

Thanks to the contributions of FrogID users across Australia, this growing database of biodiversity records and audio recordings has become an unparalleled information resource on Australia’s frogs. FrogID has allowed us to better understand the true species diversity, distribution and breeding habitats of Australian frogs with a geographic coverage and spatial, temporal and taxonomic accuracy never before possible. Monitoring frog presence at sites over time is also helping us understand how frogs and their ecosystems are responding to a changing planet- from fires, droughts, floods and urbanisation.

August 2021 alert: Frog die-off across Australia

Since winter 2021, the Australian Museum’s Herpetology department has been working closely with Australian Registry of Wildlife Health and government biosecurity and environment agencies to understand the scale of the mass frog deaths across Australia, leading the research to understand the likely causes.

If you observe a sick or dead frog, please email your observation (including photos and location information, if possible) to the Australian Museum’s FrogID team at calls@frogid.net.au.

We appreciate your important reports of sick and dead frogs, as well as your FrogID submissions through the FrogID app. Together, we are gathering the information we need to help conserve our unique frogs.

For more information and how to help

Latest Scientific News

Read our blogs...

Something to whistle about: Two “whistling” frogs in South Australia new to science

02 February 2024

Fighting the flames – how did frogs fare after the Black Summer bushfires?

26 January 2024

Smooth operators: Introducing a tiny new smooth frog from southern Victoria

09 October 2023

Funnier than the original: Introducing the Western Laughing Tree Frog

04 October 2023

Can farm dams help support frog conservation?

14 September 2023

Faded out: What environments did Australian frog populations disappear from due to disease?

30 August 2023

Our tiny green hitchhiker: Citizen science reveals the frog popping up across eastern Australia

30 June 2023

Does the venue matter for a banjo frog gig?

16 June 2023

Choose your own adventure with FrogID

30 May 2023

Collecting better biodiversity data through citizen science

05 May 2023

It’s a date: Citizen science data reveals what triggers frogs to breed

18 October 2022

Hear the difference: Citizen science deciphers the distributions of the mysterious Green Stream Frogs

10 October 2022

Citizen science reveals the breeding seasons of frogs is longer in the city

12 August 2022

Australian Frog Atlas: Revealing the true distributions of Australia’s frogs with the help of citizen scientists

29 June 2022

Bleating or screaming? Two new, very loud, frog species described in eastern Australia

22 November 2021

Do Pobblebonks sing to suit their surrounds? Calling all citizen scientists to help solve this mystery!

27 August 2021

It’s hard to live in the city: the decline of frog species from our urban areas

24 May 2021

Which frogs are best equipped to survive the human world?

04 May 2021

Frogs call at night, right?

15 October 2020

Do frogs have accents?

07 October 2020

Frogs surviving the flames: Citizen scientists reveal frogs calling across the fire zone

28 September 2020

Data for conservation: over 50,000 FrogID records now online

18 February 2020

Frog sex in the city: can frogs still be heard by their mates in urban environments?

07 February 2020

Citizen scientists document frog species richness across Australia

27 January 2020

FrogID dataset 4.0

The FrogID dataset version 4.0 has been released for download and can be accessed from the FrogID website, Atlas of Living Australia and state wildlife atlases across Australia. This dataset spans the first four years of the project, from 10 November 2017 to 9 November 2021, and includes over 484,227 records of 207 species, approximately 85% of the known 247 frog species in Australia. We follow ethical data publication guidelines and consider certain records as sensitive, thereby reducing geolocation accuracy in our publicly available dataset, taking into account the conservation status of the species, whether the species is highly range-restricted, and whether the record falls within the known geographic range of these species. Updates to the dataset are anticipated on an annual basis. For a more detailed overview of methodology and design aspects see Rowley et al. (2019), and for metadata associated with this dataset, see Rowley & Callaghan (2020).

FrogID Publications

The FrogID Team at the Australian Museum has authored the following scientific publications

Parkin, T., et al (2023). Systematic assessment of the brown tree frog (Anura: Pelodryadidae: Litoria ewingii) reveals two endemic species in South Australia. Zootaxa. 5406 (1): 1–36.

2024

Mitchell, B.A, Gorta, S.B.Z, Callaghan, C.T, Kingsford, R.T, Rowley, J.J.L, (2023) Fighting the flames: site specific effects determine species richness of Australian frogs after fire. Wildlife Research WR22175.

2023

Parkin, T., Donnellan, S.C, Parkin, B., Shea, G.M., Rowley, J.J.L. (2023). Phylogeography, hybrid zones and contemporary species boundaries in the south-eastern Australian smooth frogs (Anura: Myobatrachidae: Geocrinia). Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution

2023

Donnellan, S., Catullo, R., Rowley, J.J.L., Doughty, P., Price, L., Hines, H.B., Richards, S.J. (2023). Revision of Litoria rothii (Anura: Pelodryadidae) from northern Australia. Zootaxa 5352 (1):73-108. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5352.1.3.

2023

Malerba, M.E., Rowley, J.J.L., Macreadie, P., Frazer, J., Wright, N., Zaidi, N., Nazari, A., Thiruvady, D., Driscoll, D. (2023). Conserving nature’s chorus: local and landscape features promoting frog species richness in farm dams. Biological Conservation.

2023

Scheele, B.C., et al (2023). An invasive pathogen drives directional niche contractions in amphibians. Nature Ecology and Evolution.

2023

Rowley, J.J.L. & Callaghan, C.T. (2023). Tracking the spread of the eastern dwarf tree frog (Litoria fallax) in Australia using citizen science. Australian Journal of Zoology.

2023

Gillard, G.L. & Rowley. J.J.L. (2023). Assessment of the acoustic adaptation hypothesis in frogs using large-scale citizen science data. Journal of Zoology.

2023

Callaghan, C.T., et al. (2023). Experimental evidence that behavioral nudges in citizen science projects can improve biodiversity data, BioScience.

2023

Thompson, M.M., et al. (2023) Citizen science participant motivations and behaviour: Implications for biodiversity data coverage. Biological Conservation.

2023

Thompson, M.M., Poore, A.G.B., Rowley, J.J.L., & Callaghan, C.T. (2022) Citizen Science reveals meteorological determinants of frog calling at a continental scale. Diversity and Distributions.

2022

Cutajar, T. P., and Rowley, J. J. L. (2022) The Utility of Acoustic Citizen Science Data in Understanding Geographic Distributions of Morphologically Conserved Species: Frogs in the Litoria phyllochroa Species Group. Journal of Herpetology.

2022

Liu, G., Kingsford, R. T., Callaghan, C. T., Rowley, J. L. (2022) Anthropogenic habitat modification alters calling phenology of frogs, Global Change Biology.

2022

Cutajar, T.P., Portway, C.D., Gillard, G.L., and Rowley, J.L. (2022). Australian Frog Atlas: Species' Distribution Maps Informed by the FrogID Dataset. Technical Reports of the Australian Museum Online.

2022

Rowley, J.J.L., Mahony, M.J., Hines, H.B., Myers, S., Price, L.C., Shea, G.M. & Donnellan, S.C. (2021). Two new frog species from the Litoria rubella species group from eastern Australia. Zootaxa.

2021

Callaghan, C.T., Liu, G., Mitchell, B., Poore, A.G.B., Rowley, J.J.L. (2021) Urbanization negatively impacts frog diversity at continental, regional, and local scales, Basic and Applied Ecology.

2021

Liu, G., Rowley, J.J. L., Kingsford, R.T., Callaghan, C.T. (2021) Species' traits drive amphibian tolerance to anthropogenic habitat modification. Global Change Biology.

2021

Callaghan, C.T. & Rowley, J.J.L. (2020). A continental assessment of diurnality in frog calling behaviour. Austral Ecology.

2020

Weaver, S.J., C.T. Callaghan, J. J. L. Rowley (2020) Anuran accents: Continental‐scale citizen science data reveal spatial and temporal patterns of call variability, Ecology and Evolution.

2020

Rowley, J.J.L., Callaghan, C.T., Cornwell, W.K. (2020) Widespread short-term persistence of frog species after the2019–2020 bushfires in eastern Australia revealed by citizenscience. Conservation Science and Practice.

2020

Callaghan, C.T., et al. (2020). Citizen science data accurately predicts expert-derived species richness at a continental scale when sampling thresholds are met. Biodiversity and Conservation.

2020

Mitchell, B.A., Callaghan, C.T., Rowley, J.J.L. (2020). Continental-scale citizen science data reveal no changes in acoustic responses of a widespread tree frog to an urbanisation gradient. Journal of Urban Ecology.

2020

Rowley, J.J,L., Callaghan, C.T. (2020) The FrogID dataset: expert-validated occurrence records of Australia’s frogs collected by citizen scientists. ZooKeys.

2020

Rowley, J.J.L., et al (2019). FrogID: Citizen scientists provide validated biodiversity data on frogs of Australia. Herpetological Conservation and Biology.

2019

Request for collaborations or non-public data

If you would like to collaborate or would like to request additional data not currently publicly available, please contact research@frogid.net.au and request an ‘Application to Conduct Research or Provide Data’ form

Requests will be reviewed by one or all members of the Scientific Reference Committee on a case by case basis, they will be assessed based on the strength of the proposed research activity and overlap with existing research projects. A licence agreement form will be provided to the researcher for signing once the application has been assessed as successful. Please note: due to high levels of demand, and our small team size, it is not possible to fulfill all requests. A fee may apply for requests for specialised data and specialist expertise.

FrogID Scientific Advisory Group

The FrogID Scientific Advisory Group provides advice on non-collaborative requests for a large volume of data not currently in the public dataset (ie. sensitive species locations, audio files) or those that will take a significant amount of staff time to fulfil. The group may also provide advice on other aspects of the FrogID project including scientific research priorities, increasing the utility of FrogID data to inform land-use and conservation, and other FrogID initiatives.

Current members

  • Dr Jodi Rowley (Australian Museum & UNSW Sydney)
  • Nadiah Roslan (Australian Museum)
  • Dr Corey Callaghan (UNSW Sydney)
  • Emeritus Professor Ross Alford (James Cook University)
  • Dr David Hunter (NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment)

Recommended citation

FrogID Primary Reference:

Rowley, J.J.L., Callaghan, C.T., Cutajar, T., Portway, C., Potter K., Mahony, S, Trembath, D.F., Flemons, P. & Woods, A. (2019). FrogID: Citizen scientists provide validated biodiversity data on frogs of Australia. Herpetological Conservation and Biology 14(1): 155-170.

To cite data retrieved from the FrogID website:

FrogID (2020). FrogID. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available: http://www.frogid.net.au (Accessed: Date [e.g., 1 January, 2020]).
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