Throaty love calls are being heard all over Wyndham as male frogs serenade females during the breeding season.
Residents are being asked to record the amphibian crooners, and their distinctly different love songs for each species as part of Melbourne Water’s frog census.
The frogs are rarely seen but can be tracked by their mating calls, according to Melbourne Water’s frog census co-ordinator Richard Akers.
There’s the growl, like a distant motorbike, of the endangered growling grass frog, the deep “reep” of the southern brown tree frog, and the almost mechanical sound of a ratchet being turned, made by the common froglet. Mr Akers’ favourite is the song of pobblebonk frog.
“Individually they sing ‘bonk’, but a chorus of them singing ‘bonk, bonk, bonk’ sounds like they are singing ‘pobblebonk’.”
Carranballac College teacher John Forrester said students at the Point Cook Boardwalk campus had created a habitat for frogs, including a main pond and a “wild” pond, where they will soon conduct a frog census.
Mr Akers says volunteers can record frogs on their smartphones and upload the data to the Melbourne Water website to be analysed and used to map species distribution.
“The number of growling grass frogs across greater Melbourne has declined in the past 20 years, but improved awareness of water-sensitive design around homes can mean frogs and humans can live side by side,” Mr Akers said.
“What we are looking for are any changes to the distribution of frogs, but also where rehabilitation of waterways is working and any difference residents are making by creating rain gardens or dedicated frog bogs in their gardens.”
