Critters under the microscope

Frog expert David Newell and Vanessa Ekins from the Wilsons River Landcare Group are encouraging the whole community to come and learn about local rainforest animals and plants at the Big Scrub Rainforest Day this Sunday.

While our region’s Big Scrub remnants are a breeding ground for many unique rainforest plants, the hills around here are also home to some very rare and precious little animals.

The theme of this Sunday’s annual Big Scrub Rainforest Day is ‘Animals of the Big Scrub’ and among the many talks and workshops will be a presentation by Southern Cross University lecturer, Dr David Newell.

Dave has been fascinated with frogs ever since he was a little tacker playing with tadpoles in his backyard, and when he moved to the Northern Rivers 17 years ago he fell in love with the green tree frogs around his home and the other species he met in local rainforests.

He has since completed a PhD on the ecology and conservation of the Fleay’s barred frog, which is an endangered stream breeding species found nowhere else on Earth except northern NSW and south-east Queensland.

“This species of frog was only described in 1987 and like many others around the world is threatened with extinction,” Dave explained. “Frogs are now recognised as the most endangered group of vertebrates on the planet and many unique species are rapidly disappearing.”

While the Fleay’s barred frog struggles to survive, other frogs are only now being discovered.

“We are still finding new species of frogs even on the North Coast. The most recent descriptions are the masked mountain frogs, who have very restricted distributions. Our local frogs are unique and some keep some very interesting secrets,” he said, assuring all would be revealed during his talk.

Dave believes understanding frog habitat is the key to their continued survival.

“The Fleay’s barred frog breeds in shallow gravel beds within streams and humans inadvertently walking through their habitat can squash the eggs and metamorphosing frogs,” he said.

His research has already led to improved design and placement of walking tracks in local National Parks and he’s now looking at the impacts of a newly discovered frog fungus that is linked with the disappearance of frogs around the world.

“The Chytrid fungus was introduced into Australia in the late 1970s and we are assessing its interaction with local frog populations,” he said.

Dave is one of many experts who will be talking about rainforest animals at the Big Scrub Rainforest Day, which is being held in Alstonville for the first time this Sunday, September 5.

The day offers plenty to keep all ages amused – workshops and talks on everything from flying foxes and snails to echidnas and cane toads, guided rainforest walks in local Big Scrub remnants, information from lots of local conservation groups and plenty of fun and games for children including making butterflies, discovering the magic of rain and learning to call frogs.

The day begins at 10am at the Alstonville Leisure Centre with a Welcome to Country and continues until 2pm with activities spilling out onto the nearby Showgrounds.

For full details see the program on page 36 of this week’s Echo.