| Baw Baw Frog | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Myobatrachidae |
| Genus: | Philoria |
| Species: | P. frosti |
| Binomial name | |
| Philoria frosti Spencer, 1901 |
|
| Range of the Baw Baw Frog. | |
The Baw Baw frog (Philoria frosti) is a critically endangered species of Australian frog as categorised on the IUCN Red List and listed under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988).
Contents |
Adult length is between 42 to 55 mm. Adults are dark brown and often have brown to dark brown, yellow flecked bellies. These frogs have a prominent parotoid gland behind each eye. Their toes are unwebbed. At hatching, the tadpoles are creamy white and unpigmented, acquiring some colouration and eye pigmentation as they mature. Tadpoles have large yolk sacs and residual mouths, and do not feed until metamorphosis. Metamorphlings have different colouration to the adults.
Baw Baw frogs live in a restricted range on the Baw Baw Plateau in eastern Victoria and have more recently been discovered in the subalpine moist eucalypt forests around the plateau. The breeding habitat appears to have contracted to the moister and less rocky western and central areas of the plateau.
The female frog lays her eggs in naturally occurring cavities in and around the soil, vegetation, logs or rocks. According to Hollis, the tadpoles generally remain at their hatching site but may move short distances in shallow water, while remaining under cover of vegetation, or may be washed into ponds.
Population estimates have reduced from 10,000-15,000 breeding males in 1983 to around 750, or according to Frogs Victoria less than 250 individuals. The cause of this reduction is unknown, but the usual suspects of predatation by feral animals, habitat degradation, chytrid fungus and ozone layer depletion may each have contributed. The frog's habitat is subject to woodchipping and Hollis cites Malone (1985) as having found significantly higher mortality rates in eggs and tadpoles in disturbed habitats in comparison with those in undisturbed surroundings.