Free phone app lets everyday Aussies participate in frog study this FrogID Week

The Australian Museum's FrogID project allows anyone with a smartphone to record and submit the sounds of frog calls with the free FrogID app.

The recorded calls will be identified by the Australian Museum's research team, adding to the growing understanding of how frogs are coping against a myriad of threats.

Dr Jodi Rowley, Lead Scientist for FrogID and Curator of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Biology at the Australian Museum and UNSW Sydney, said FrogID Week was a gamechanger for conservation efforts.

"It's helping us discover new species, helping us understand how frogs are responding to climate change, how they recovered after the black summer bushfires, how they're responding to urbanisation and which species are most impacted by the way we modify landscapes," she said.

"It gives me hope that there are tens of thousands of people out there that care, and are willing to stand in the middle of night and record a frog."

In just five years the FrogID project has collated over 750,000 frog records.

Aussie frogs are trying to leapfrog Taylor Swift to get the number one spot on the music charts, with FrogID releasing Songs of Disappearance, containing songs made using over 50 ribbeting frog calls.

"It would take me 50,000 lifetimes to get the kind of information that people across Australia are giving us about our frogs," Dr Rowley said.

Habitat loss, pollution, disease and climate change have pushed Australia's native frog populations to the brink of extinction.

Ecologically, frogs are a canary in the coal mine - their presence indicates a healthy ecosystem and their absence can signal disaster.

Of the 246 frog species native to Australia, at least four are already extinct.

Of great concern to frog conservationists is the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis, or chytrid, one of the most destructive wildlife diseases known to recorded history.

"Our poor frogs have been fighting a pandemic for decades," Dr Rowley said.

Chytrid infects the amphibians' porous skin - through which they usually absorb oxygen and electrolytes - which make it difficult for them to breathe and can affect their nervous system.

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The recent rainfall and flooding across the country has impacted stream frogs whose habitats are particularly threatened by flooding.

"Frogs are some of the first animals to respond to climate change, frogs are incredibly sensitive to their environment and to temperature and rainfall and always very dependent on water," Dr Rowley said.

Stream frogs may not have an opportunity to breed because the floods have wreaked havoc on the areas where stream frogs reside and lay their eggs.

Several areas of Australia are in need of frog data and are being targeted in this years campaign, these include:

Dr Rowley recommends heating out just after dark to a local water source to record frogs living in backyards, local parks and bushlands.

The FrogID app is free and available to all smartphone users.

Over the week of November 11-20 Australians are encouraged to become citizen scientists and record the croaks, barks, whistles and bleats that make Australian frogs so unique.