Frogs in your Backyard

Frogs are amphibians, animals that live both on land and in water. One of the factors that allow frogs to move from water to land is their specialised skin.

The moist skin of a frog achieves a number of important biological functions including:

• absorbing oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide
• regulating their salt content and absorbing water
• changing colour to camouflage themselves
• secreting mucus to avoid drying out.

Frogs are susceptible to many changes in their environment. Changes in salinity, temperature and pH affect the distribution of many species. Salinity can impact on a frog’s ability to regulate its salt/water balance. Temperature change can affect the ecology of frogs by forcing populations to alter habitat use and spawning times. Large changes in pH can also impact the distribution of local species and, in some cases, they will move out of an area altogether.

Surprisingly, frogs often prefer turbid water instead of clear pools. At present, frog populations are declining all around the world.

Using frogs as bio-indicators can be as simple as noticing that a formerly noisy frog habitat has become silent while other nearby habitats are still active.

Find out more about frogs in your backyard: Frogs of NSW

Use the FrogID mobile app to record frogs in your area - visit the FrogID website to learn more!