FOR THE LOVE OF FROGS

IF YOU’RE HOPING to be involved in the discovery of a new vertebrate species, then Australian frogs could be your best chance.

So far, Australia has a confirmed 246 species and subspecies of frog. But there may be several dozen more out there still waiting to be identified, says Dr Jodi Rowley, the Australian Museum’s curator of amphibian and reptile conservation biology.

“We think that anywhere up to about 20 per cent of our frog species still remain to be discovered,” she explains, “and, potentially, anyone out there could find them.”

Along with the museum’s director, Kim McKay, Jodi is the driving force behind what’s become one of Australia’s most successful citizen science projects – FrogID. At its core is an interactive app, downloadable for free on a smartphone, that exploits the fact that every frog species has its own unique call. Each amphibian ribbit, chirp, tweet,