It’s not very big – about half the length of an adult thumb. And it’s very well camouflaged, perfectly coloured to be barely visible to the eye of a predator.
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So you’ll need skill – and a mountain of luck – to spot a Peppered Tree Frog in its natural habitat which runs from Glen Innes down to Guyra and Armidale. High rocky streams are what it likes best.
One of the most knowledgeable experts in the world on the species will talk at the Services Club in Glen Innes on Thursday evening about how you can help track them down, if indeed they still exist in their most congenial habitat which is this area.
Dr Jodi Rowley, the Curator of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Biology at the Australian Museum in Sydney, said: “The Peppered Tree Frog (Litoria piperata) is only known from a handful of rocky streams in the New England Tablelands and has not been seen since about 1974.
“The species is listed as Critically Endangered in NSW and there are fears that it may be extinct.”
If it is extinct, it came and went in a short space of time, at least to human view. It was only spotted first in the 70s and then not spotted again since.
Dr Rowley said: “First found by scientists in the 1970s, and officially described as a species in the 1980s, the frog has not been confirmed seen since the 1970’s. The search is now on to find this frog again.”
She says the natural habitat is rocky streams. “We will be surveying the areas where the species was originally found and similar streams throughout an area encompassing Armidale, Glen Innes and everything in between.
“While we will be searching protected areas, most of the streams where we think the frog occurred are on private property, so our best chance will likely be surveying your streams!
“We’d love to hear from you if you have rocky streams on your property where we might have your permission to look for the Peppered Tree Frog. We are particularly excited to hear from you if you have rocky streams on your property with clear water and some stream side vegetation above about 750 metres elevation on the eastern New England Tablelands.
“With your help, we hope to find a very rare New England frog in the wild once again.”