Nature News – 2nd May 2017 Stay at home Dad in Happy Valley
Posted on 3 May, 2017 by Connecting Country
For this month’s Nature News on Page 30 of the 2nd May 2017 edition of the Midland Express, local ecologist and Castlemaine Landcarer, Karl Just explains the unusual breeding biology of a locally lesser common frog species and the work of Castlemaine Landcare in helping to restore its habitat.
Photo Caption: A male Brown Toadlet taking patient care of his eggs. Photo taken by: Damien Cook
Our local waterways sure copped a hammering during the gold-rush days. Early photos show a bleak landscape, all sludgy soil, bare of vegetation. The incredible changes that occurred to riparian habitat during those days would have removed entire communities of plants, mammals, birds, frogs and insects. But the process of recovery has well and truly begun, with the dedicated and hard work of various Landcare groups steadily restoring ecological diversity to our creeks.
Along Forest Creek, one species that would have been heavily impacted is the endangered Brown Toadlet. Now stick with me a moment, I know it has a very uninspiring name, but believe me this little critter is a true icon of the box ironbark ecosystem. Unlike our other local frogs that mostly breed during the wetter winter-spring months, the Brown Toadlet or Pseudophryne bibroni only breeds for a short period during autumn. The males set up little colonies in wet gullies and call regularly to attract a mate. When she arrives and lays the eggs, instead of hanging around she nicks off and leaves the work to the male, who will patiently sit on the eggs for many weeks or several months. This is why the species is also occasionally called a brooding frog. When rain arrives (in good years), the eggs are eventually flushed into adjacent waterholes where the tadpoles will hatch and begin their development.
Heading east into Happy Valley one autumn day, I heard the distinctive sound of the Brown Toadlet calling from the adjacent gully. Although I knew the species is fairly common in some parts of the local area, I was excited as it was the first time I had heard them in the Forest Creek valley. But the gully was a mess – the breeding site was covered in Gorse and Blackberry and there was only a sparse cover of native sedges. Something needed to be done.
Enter Castlemaine Landcare. We applied for and were successful in receiving a grant to clean up the site and also dig a new pond for the frogs to breed in. Landcare held a working bee where we planted the new frog pond with native sedges and rushes and the surrounding area with nectar rich shrubs for birds. We also put down some roofing tiles and had Toadlets sheltering and laying eggs beneath them.
In April 2017 Castlemaine received 140mm of rainfall – three times the long-term average for that month. The Toadlets responded very positively and colonised the frog pond we built last year, as well as several new sites nearby. Landcare aims to continue to restore the site and surrounding area and hope that the endangered Brown Toadlet will one day spread further throughout the Forest Creek valley.
New pond in August 2016
New pond after 65mm in April 2017
Thanks for sharing. Fantastic efforts and great results! I’d encourage people to submit all of their frog (and other species) onto the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas (VBA), and you can easily record and submit frog calls and sightings by using Melbourne Water’s Frog Census App
Thanks Aaron, Great suggestions. The other good database for documenting sighting of frogs (and fish, waterbirds and aquatic mammals) is the NatureBlitz app from the North Central CMA. For Apple phones, see https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/natureblitz/id1116885924?mt=8. For Android phones, see https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.gov.vic.nccma.natureblitz&hl=en. Cheers, Chris
Thank you for the good news story, one so important, it should be shared with the rest of the world, not just Castlemaine and environs.
I found 2 weeks ago a Brown Toadlet in my garden Chewton. Beautiful markings on its belly.