Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Frogs of Brisbane and how to identify them: Is it a frog or is it a toad?

Did you know that there are 49 frogs listed as occurring in the regions surrounding Brisbane?
Have you ever seen frogs or toads in your garden at home? Some are really easy to identify as frogs, but there are a lot of dark brown native frogs in Brisbane that someone might mistakingly attempt to hurt thinking it is a cane toad.
The experts at the Amphibian Research Centre have posted some pictures here of all of the frogs found in Brisbane, also listing the identifying features of them all. Just click on the pictures for more detailed information.
This is a really useful tool to have access to when conducting your backyard survey.
Below in blue is what Amphibian Research Centre have posted about identifying a cane toad in your back garden. (Some of the terms you might need to look into a little further, such as finding out what where the glands and tubercules are located on a frog)

Visible features
Presented here is the information stored in the frogs.org.au database which is used to identify frogs based on their appearance. It is intended to be used in a key guide for separating species so some of the information (for example, back colours) may be rather non-specific. The system is currently being developed - if you notice errors in the data, please write to Dave Black at the address at the bottom of the page.
Important note: This information details only the appearance of the frog. If an "or" appears in the description, this may mean either that there is some variation within the species or that the feature might be observed differently by different people. For example, if a frog has very small toe pads, it may be listed as having "Toe pads: present or absent"

Size
Up to greater than 90mm

Eyes, hands, and feet
Pupils: horizontal
Toe pads: absent
Webbing on feet: half-webbing or full-webbing

Belly
Texture: smooth
Pattern: plain
Colour: multi-coloured with only black, grey, and white or multi-coloured featuring a colour in addition to black, grey, and white

Back
Texture: rough or warty or ridged
Pattern: plain or mixed / marbled
Colour: single colour or multi-coloured

Glands and tubercles
Parotoid gland: present
Tibial gland: absent
Metatarsal tubercles: Non-keratinised glands present (fleshy or uncoloured)

No comments:

Post a Comment