IN LATE APRIL, A TEAM of 7 volunteers travelled to Kroombit Tops National Park for the last round of threatened frog surveys and monitoring funded by QFS’s Community Sustainability Action Grant. Conditions during this survey event were cooler than expected and our target species – the critically endangered Kroombit tinker frog and Kroombit treefrog – were only recorded in low numbers at a handful of survey sites.
While at Kroombit Tops National Park, QFS volunteers were kept busy retrieving the numerous autonomous recording devices deployed on the last Frogsearch in November 2021. These devices have been recording frog calls at stream and seepage sites across Kroombit Tops on a nightly basis throughout summer and early autumn. Recordings downloaded from these devices will be analysed to determine the current distribution and abundance of threatened frog species at sites within Kroombit Tops National Park.
In addition to the aforementioned activities, volunteers also assisted with the control and removal of Lantana from the site where a pig proof fence was constructed by QFS volunteers in 2021. The fence constructed at this site has helped protect an important area of Kroombit tinker frog from pig damage as well as protecting animals from predation by pigs.
The results of surveys and monitoring undertaken by QFS volunteers in 2019–2022 will help inform management actions supporting the recovery of threatened frogs at Kroombit Tops National Park, including the proposed release of captive-bred animals to bolster numbers in the wild.
Ed Meyer
