Research Results
Monitoring results of three endangered species over a number of years at eight field sites show a progressive decline in some populations. These studies link to complementary investigations of the prevalence of the amphibian disease Chytridiomycosis.
Monitoring of several endangered frog populations provided evidence that frog declines are continuing and that the process reveals a geographic pattern. For two species that have declined from greater than 80% of their historic range the populations that were closely monitored showed no signs of decline, while others were at a stage where the population is likely to disappear altogether within a few years. As yet there is no management action that is known to reverse amphibian declines.
Hamer, A., Lane, S, & Mahony, M. (2002) The role of an introduced fish in displacing a native amphibian into marginal habitat: the case of the mosquito fish Gambusia holbrooki and the endangered green and golden bell frog Litoria aurea in southeastern
Australia. Oecologia, 132: 445-452.
Hamer, A.J., Lane, S.J, & Mahony, M. J. (2002) Management of freshwater wetlands for the endangered green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea): roles of habitat determinants and space. Biological Conservation, 106: 413-424.
Mahony, M., Donnellan, S. C., Richards, S. J., and McDonald, K. (2006) Species boundaries among barred river frogs, Mixophyes (Anura: Myobatrachidae) in north-eastern Australia, with descriptions of two new species. Zootaxa, 1228: 35-60.
Thumm, K and Mahony, M. J. (2002) Evidence for continuous iteroparity in a temperate zone frog, the red crowned toadlet Pseudphryne australis (Anura: Myobatrachidae). Australian Journal of Zoology, 50:151-167