News
Corroboree Frog Recovery Team annual meeting wrap-up
August 2010
 A corroboree frog tadpole transforming into a frog.
Photo: Amphibian Research Centre. |
The Corroboree Frog Recovery Team had their annual meeting this week in Queanbeyan to talk about everything related to saving the Corroboree Frogs.
People from all the major project partners attended for the two-day meeting. The first day of the meeting focused on the results of the captive breeding program.
All the people involved in captive breeding gave an update on the results of the last breeding season. The great news is that we had successful breeding in almost all of the breeding facilities and much more success overall than previous years.
Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve’s northern corroboree frogs produced 442 eggs and Taronga Zoo has 143 southern corroboree frog tadpoles and 270 northern corroboree frog tadpoles swimming around.
Over the coming months it will be exciting to watch the tadpoles change into little corroboree frogs.
Unfortunately we also had a few set-backs with frogs getting sick and temperature control problems. We have identified the cause of much of the illness in the frogs and have made changes to the facilities to fix these. We are also installing better temperature control systems in some of the facilities and high-tech temperature alarm systems to prevent any more of these problems in the future.
Thanks to the teamwork of all the captive breeding facilities - Taronga Zoo, Amphibian Research Centre, Melbourne Zoo, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and Healesville Sanctuary – we are excited about the wonderful progress we are making in saving this important species!
Visit the movies and help Corroboree Frogs
January 2010
  The Princess and the Frog Movie Promo.
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The Murray CMA and Regent Cinemas, Albury are promoting the plight of the Corroboree Frog over the next two weeks to coincide with screenings of the new Disney movie The Princess and The Frog.
Go to http://www.regentcinemas.com.au/ to enter our competition to win free movie tickets and go in the draw for the grand prize of a 'Behind the Scenes' tour of Taronga Zoo's Corroboree frog breeding program with Taronga zookeeper Michael McFadden.
Everyone that buys tickets to The Princess and the Frog will also receive a free Corroboree Frog sticker.
Frogs in Schools
September 2009
 Student with frogs.
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 Gerry Marantelli of the Amphibian Research Centre.
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Students at sixteen schools in the Murray Catchment had the opportunity to get up-close with Corroboree Frogs, and lots of other frogs from the local area, at Frog Education days held in September.
Gerry Marantelli, of the Amphibian Research Centre in Melbourne, visited schools with an entourage of frogs for students to see, touch and feed. Gerry also talked to students about the many superpowers of frogs from across the world, including the frog that can freeze solid and come back to life when it thaws, and the most poisonous animal in the world - the poison dart-frog of South America.
All the students were fascinated by Gerry's stories and we hope are inspired to help us stop the decline and extinction of more of the worlds’ wonderful frogs.
Breeding Success at Tidbinbilla
August 2009
 Dr Murray Evans in one of the temperature-controlled breeding enclosures at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.
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 Northern Corroboree Frog.
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The gang at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve in the ACT has had a major breakthrough in the captive breeding program of Corroboree Frogs. During the last breeding season their Northern Corroboree Frogs produced close to 1,500 eggs or an average of 6 eggs per female. This is by far the best breeding success we've had with either of the Corroboree Frog species and gives us lots of hope for the future.
Corroboree frogs can't breed until they are about four years old, and breeding success improves as they get older with older females appearing to produce much more eggs. Because of this only frogs that were collected as eggs from the wild over 5 years ago are breeding. On top of this we have had lots of problems with eggs and tadpoles not surviving to frog stage.
The reason for the last season's success at Tidbinbilla is still not really known. Dr Murray Evans - Senior Wildlife Ecologist with the ACT Government has developed a temperature regime for the captive frogs that he believes might be part of the reason. The regime mimics the conditions the frogs would have in their natural environment and involves cooling the frogs down to 5°C for a short Winter and a longer Summer at 20°C to allow the frogs to grow and develop eggs.
During the next breeding season Murray and his team at Tidbinbilla will be looking extra closely at the temperature regime, and a range of other factors, to see if they can find the secret to their success.
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