Separately, a forensic team is running toxicology tests looking for things like pesticides, heavy metals or other environmental toxins. Others will conduct a basic necropsy and keep the rest of the carcass in a fixative to be examined microscopically later on.įriends and family members are also storing frozen frogs that have been dropped in mailboxes by people from their communities. The researchers are working with a network of vets around Australia, some of whom are storing frozen frogs until they can be delivered after the lockdowns. The freezer containing some of the samples Jodi Rowley has been sent. Some of the tests have returned a positive result, but Rowley and Hall both say it is too early to draw conclusions.Ĭovid-19 lockdowns have also hampered the ability to do investigations in the field. It is more likely to take hold during winter months, when frogs’ immune systems slow down. They then run DNA tests looking for pathogens that might indicate a virus or a fungus.Īt present, the number one candidate for what has caused the mass mortality event is chytrid fungus, which has been responsible for declines of more than 500 amphibian species globally.
They re turning the frogs gay skin#
Much like a Covid-19 test, they swab the frogs – usually on their belly and legs – and also take a small skin sample. Over at the Australian Museum, Rowley and her team are looking at the animals on a molecular level. They dissect the frogs, looking for any indicators of disease, and take samples from their liver, kidneys, blood and stomach content if they have any.
The two scientists have been conducting necropsies on frog carcasses at a pathology facility at Taronga zoo that acts as a morgue and a lab. “It’s exquisitely difficult to work with frogs because they decompose so quickly and are a cryptic species – meaning they’re difficult to find,” says Jane Hall, who works with Rose at the Australian Registry of Wildlife Health at Taronga zoo. Jane Hall at the Australian Registry of Wildlife Health at Taronga zoo. When frogs die, they shrivel up quickly, so many have been found dark brown and withered.
The frogs that are found alive are often lethargic and emaciated, with red bellies and coloured patches on their skin. Sixty per cent of the frogs found are green tree frogs, something likely explained by the fact they are a common species found in and around people’s homes. The one invasive species is the cane toad. Of those, 30 species are native – including endangered frogs such as green and golden bell frogs, southern bell frogs and the giant barred frog. Over the past two-and-a-half months, the scientists have collected reports of 31 different species affected in almost every state and territory. “It’s really broken our hearts, because we love our frogs,” Wilson-Lutter says.
“We keep what we call the frog-cuzzi, a little pool for them to swim in, and we love having them here because they kill spiders and pests.”īut in recent months, Wilson-Lutter noticed frogs were leaving loose skin in their little pool and others were changing colour or turning up dead. Every night frogs would come into the kitchen via a gap in the roof. Gail Wilson-Lutter and her husband have lived in Meerschaum Vale in the NSW northern rivers for 36 years. “We recognise the same frogs and they just decline in health and size and eventually their eyes dull and they just die. Sign up for the Guardian Australia Weekend app I can only imagine how hard it is for the people out there who are seeing these frogs.” “It’s been quite devastating to be at the receiving end of some of these emails. Rowley, a conservation biologist specialising in amphibians, is the lead scientist at the Australian Museum’s FrogID, a citizen science project that for the past four years has focused largely on recording the calls of Australia’s many frog species.īut its work shifted after Rowley did an ABC radio interview in late July to talk about dead green tree frogs that were being found around Scotts Head on the NSW mid north coast.Īfter that, Rowley started receiving emails about frogs in similar condition being found in other parts of the country.Ī week later she and Karrie Rose, the head of Australian Registry of Wildlife Health, wrote a piece for the Conversation that asked people who spotted sick or dying amphibians to make a report through the FrogID email. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian ‘It’s really broken our hearts’ One of the shrivelled frogs Australia Museum researcher Jodi Rowley has been sent.
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