Frogs hop into spotlight

FROGS at Healesville Sanctuary are stepping into the spotlight this week.
The Sanctuary is celebrating National Frog Week with a community frog walk and talk event on Saturday evening, 11 November.
Russel Traher, the Sanctuary’s curator and frog expert, will lead an adventure packed night walk and talk into the protected Coranderrk Bushland area adjoining Healesville Sanctuary.
The Coranderrk Frogs Walk ‘n’ Talk will include a presentation on local Victorian frogs and the threats they face and a spotlight walk into the Coranderrk Bushland.
The evening event, held from 7pm to 9pm, will also include a light supper and a frog-friendly information pack for participants to take home.
Jill Rischbieth, the sanctuary’s communications manager, said the event was being held to raise the profile of frogs facing a global extinction crisis.
“Healesville Sanctuary’s part in helping this crisis is to breed a critically threatened spotted tree frog (litoria spenceri),” she said.
“This is a new breeding program and the frogs just arrived on site a few weeks ago.”
Ms Rischbieth said the spotted tree frog, which once existed in the mountain streams of eastern Victoria and New South Wales, now only exists at 13 isolated sites in Victoria.
She said the Victorian Government was implementing a recovery program for the endangered species and had asked for the sanctuary’s assistance.
“We are raising juvenile spotted tree frogs received from the Amphibian Research Centre (ARC).”
“Together with the ARC, the longer-term aim is to breed sufficient numbers of the spotted tree frog for release into the wild.”
The Coranderrk Frogs Walk ‘n’ Talk costs $17.50 for adults and $7.50 for children 8 to 16. Contact the Discovery and Learning Centre at Healesville Sanctuary on 5957 2819 for information and bookings.