The native frogs of Victoria, Australia are facing a conservation crisis, according to reports in the Sydney Morning Herald. Alarmingly, fifteen of the 34 frog species native to Victoria have been listed as threatened.
Wildlife biologists have warned that some frogs have ‘passed a tipping point’, while others have actually become extinct. The main cause in the decline includes pollution, loss of habitat, climate change, invasive species and the highly infectious fungal condition chytridiomycosis.
The large brown tree frog has not been recorded since 1993 while the southern barred frog has not been recorded since the 1980s and is believed to be extinct.
Meanwhile, prospects for the Baw Baw frog, Victoria's only endemic frog species, are now considered ‘immediately bleak.’ Having disappeared from the plateau areas of Mount Baw Baw, the Baw Baw frog is now only found on the western slopes of the mountain. Furthermore, the spotted tree frog, which is found in the mountain streams of north-eastern Victoria, is also battling – with half the known population believed to have died out.
Conservation biologists are calling for more resources to monitor and survey frog populations to stop the decline. Moves are needed to establish the scale of the threats and how they can be stopped.
Will you help me urge both the Federal and Victorian governments to work together to stop the decline? Please sign and share the petition to urge the Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt, to take immediate action to stop the frogs of Australia from going extinct.
