Scientific Outcomes of FrogID
Thanks to the contributions of FrogID users across Australia, this growing database of biodiversity records and audio recordings has become an unparalleled information resource on Australia’s frogs. FrogID has allowed us to better understand the true species diversity, distribution and breeding habitats of Australian frogs with a geographic coverage and spatial, temporal and taxonomic accuracy never before possible. Monitoring frog presence at sites over time is also helping us understand how frogs and their ecosystems are responding to a changing planet- from fires, droughts, floods and urbanisation.
August 2021 alert: Frog die-off across Australia
Since winter 2021, the Australian Museum’s Herpetology department has been working closely with Australian Registry of Wildlife Health and government biosecurity and environment agencies to understand the scale of the mass frog deaths across Australia, leading the research to understand the likely causes.
If you observe a sick or dead frog, please email your observation (including photos and location information, if possible) to the Australian Museum’s FrogID team at calls@frogid.net.au.
We appreciate your important reports of sick and dead frogs, as well as your FrogID submissions through the FrogID app. Together, we are gathering the information we need to help conserve our unique frogs.
Latest Scientific News
Citizen scientists can help save Australia's threatened species if we give them more direction
28 August 2024
Faded out: What environments did Australian frog populations disappear from due to disease?
30 August 2023
Our tiny green hitchhiker: Citizen science reveals the frog popping up across eastern Australia
30 June 2023
Hear the difference: Citizen science deciphers the distributions of the mysterious Green Stream Frogs
10 October 2022
Australian Frog Atlas: Revealing the true distributions of Australia’s frogs with the help of citizen scientists
29 June 2022
Bleating or screaming? Two new, very loud, frog species described in eastern Australia
22 November 2021
Do Pobblebonks sing to suit their surrounds? Calling all citizen scientists to help solve this mystery!
27 August 2021
Frogs surviving the flames: Citizen scientists reveal frogs calling across the fire zone
28 September 2020
FrogID dataset 5.0
The FrogID dataset version 5.0 has been released for download and can be accessed from the FrogID website. It will also be shared with the Atlas of Living Australia and state wildlife atlases across Australia. This dataset spans the first five years of the project, from 10 November 2017 to 9 November 2022, and includes 771,542 records of 208 species, approximately 82% of the known 254 frog species in Australia. We follow ethical data publication guidelines and consider certain records as sensitive, thereby reducing geolocation accuracy in our publicly available dataset, taking into account the conservation status of the species, whether the species is highly range-restricted, and whether the record falls within the known geographic range of these species. Updates to the dataset are anticipated on an annual basis. For a more detailed overview of methodology and design aspects see Rowley et al. (2019), and for metadata associated with this dataset, see Rowley & Callaghan (2020).
FrogID Publications
Gallagher, R., Roger, E., Packer, J., Slatyer, C., Rowley, J.J.L, Cornwell, W., Ens, E., Legge, S., Simpfendorfer, C., Stephen, R., Mesaglio, T. (2024). Incorporating citizen science into IUCN Red List assessments, Conservation Biology
2024
Moon, K., Yates, S., Callaghan, C. T., & Thompson, M. (2024). The relational nature of citizen science. People and Nature.
2024
Gillard, G.L, Flemons, P.K.J, Roslan, N., Woods, A. and Rowley, J.J.L. (2024). What’s That Frog? Evaluating a Crowdsourced Approach to Species Identification From Audio Recordings. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice
2024
Elliott-Tate, J. & Rowley, J.J.L. (2024). Unravelling male advertisement call variability in the brown tree frog (Litoria ewingii) complex by using citizen science. Australian Journal of Zoology.
2024
Parkin, T., Rowley, J.J.L, Gillard, G., Sopniewski, J., Shea, G.M. & Donnellan, S.C. (2024). Systematics and taxonomy of the Northern Banjo Frog (Anura: Limnodynastidae: Limnodynastes terraereginae) and allied taxa. Ichthyology and Herpetology.
2024
Parkin, T., Rowley, J.J.L, Elliot-Tate, J., Mahony, M., Sumner, J., Melville, J. & Donnellan, S.C. (2024). Systematic assessment of the brown tree frog (Anura: Pelodryadidae: Litoria ewingii) reveals two endemic species in South Australia. Zootaxa.
2024
Mitchell, B.A, Gorta, S.B.Z, Callaghan, C.T, Kingsford, R.T, Rowley, J.J.L, (2023) Fighting the flames: site specific effects determine species richness of Australian frogs after fire. Wildlife Research.
2023
Parkin, T., Donnellan, S.C, Parkin, B., Shea, G.M., Rowley, J.J.L. (2023). Phylogeography, hybrid zones and contemporary species boundaries in the south-eastern Australian smooth frogs (Anura: Myobatrachidae: Geocrinia). Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution
2023
Donnellan, S., Catullo, R., Rowley, J.J.L., Doughty, P., Price, L., Hines, H.B., Richards, S.J. (2023). Revision of Litoria rothii (Anura: Pelodryadidae) from northern Australia. Zootaxa.
2023
Malerba, M.E., Rowley, J.J.L., Macreadie, P., Frazer, J., Wright, N., Zaidi, N., Nazari, A., Thiruvady, D., Driscoll, D. (2023). Conserving nature’s chorus: local and landscape features promoting frog species richness in farm dams. Biological Conservation.
2023
Scheele, B.C., et al (2023). An invasive pathogen drives directional niche contractions in amphibians. Nature Ecology and Evolution.
2023
Rowley, J.J.L. & Callaghan, C.T. (2023). Tracking the spread of the eastern dwarf tree frog (Litoria fallax) in Australia using citizen science. Australian Journal of Zoology.
2023
Gillard, G.L. & Rowley. J.J.L. (2023). Assessment of the acoustic adaptation hypothesis in frogs using large-scale citizen science data. Journal of Zoology.
2023
Callaghan, C.T., et al. (2023). Experimental evidence that behavioral nudges in citizen science projects can improve biodiversity data, BioScience.
2023
Thompson, M.M., et al. (2023) Citizen science participant motivations and behaviour: Implications for biodiversity data coverage. Biological Conservation.
2023
Thompson, M.M., Poore, A.G.B., Rowley, J.J.L., & Callaghan, C.T. (2022) Citizen Science reveals meteorological determinants of frog calling at a continental scale. Diversity and Distributions.
2022
Cutajar, T. P., and Rowley, J. J. L. (2022) The Utility of Acoustic Citizen Science Data in Understanding Geographic Distributions of Morphologically Conserved Species: Frogs in the Litoria phyllochroa Species Group. Journal of Herpetology.
2022
Liu, G., Kingsford, R. T., Callaghan, C. T., Rowley, J. L. (2022) Anthropogenic habitat modification alters calling phenology of frogs, Global Change Biology.
2022
Cutajar, T.P., Portway, C.D., Gillard, G.L., and Rowley, J.L. (2022). Australian Frog Atlas: Species' Distribution Maps Informed by the FrogID Dataset. Technical Reports of the Australian Museum Online.
2022
Rowley, J.J.L., Mahony, M.J., Hines, H.B., Myers, S., Price, L.C., Shea, G.M. & Donnellan, S.C. (2021). Two new frog species from the Litoria rubella species group from eastern Australia. Zootaxa.
2021
Callaghan, C.T., Liu, G., Mitchell, B., Poore, A.G.B., Rowley, J.J.L. (2021) Urbanization negatively impacts frog diversity at continental, regional, and local scales, Basic and Applied Ecology.
2021
Liu, G., Rowley, J.J. L., Kingsford, R.T., Callaghan, C.T. (2021) Species' traits drive amphibian tolerance to anthropogenic habitat modification. Global Change Biology.
2021
Callaghan, C.T. & Rowley, J.J.L. (2020). A continental assessment of diurnality in frog calling behaviour. Austral Ecology.
2020
Weaver, S.J., C.T. Callaghan, J. J. L. Rowley (2020) Anuran accents: Continental‐scale citizen science data reveal spatial and temporal patterns of call variability, Ecology and Evolution.
2020
Rowley, J.J.L., Callaghan, C.T., Cornwell, W.K. (2020) Widespread short-term persistence of frog species after the2019–2020 bushfires in eastern Australia revealed by citizenscience. Conservation Science and Practice.
2020
Callaghan, C.T., et al. (2020). Citizen science data accurately predicts expert-derived species richness at a continental scale when sampling thresholds are met. Biodiversity and Conservation.
2020
Mitchell, B.A., Callaghan, C.T., Rowley, J.J.L. (2020). Continental-scale citizen science data reveal no changes in acoustic responses of a widespread tree frog to an urbanisation gradient. Journal of Urban Ecology.
2020
Request for collaborations or non-public data
If you would like to collaborate or would like to request additional data not currently publicly available, please contact research@frogid.net.au and request an ‘Application to Conduct Research or Provide Data’ form
Requests will be reviewed by one or all members of the Scientific Reference Committee on a case by case basis, they will be assessed based on the strength of the proposed research activity and overlap with existing research projects. A licence agreement form will be provided to the researcher for signing once the application has been assessed as successful. Please note: due to high levels of demand, and our small team size, it is not possible to fulfill all requests. A fee may apply for requests for specialised data and specialist expertise.
FrogID Scientific Advisory Group
Current members
- Dr Jodi Rowley (Australian Museum & UNSW Sydney)
- Nadiah Roslan (Australian Museum)
- Dr Corey Callaghan (UNSW Sydney)
- Emeritus Professor Ross Alford (James Cook University)
- Dr David Hunter (NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment)
