The unexpectedly heavy rain that has fallen across large parts of central Australia has already had major impact on the flora and fauna.
In the past week, 43.8mm has been measured in the rain gauge at the Alice Springs airport, well above the town’s average November rainfall of 28.1mm. While visitors can expect to see a bit more green around the place soon enough, one thing that is already being seen – and heard – is the sheer volume of native desert frogs that have suddenly emerged.
According to local Alice Springs ecologist Alistair Stewart the frogs, many of which are of the burrowing variety, will stay underground for months on end, or even years, and only surface after it rains.
“It’s not until you have a decent rain period like this that you’ll start coming across them again,” he told the ABC. “They have amazing adaptations to be able to stick it out without any sort of rain or water coming down the rivers for months and years at a time.”
Mr Stewart said people probably did not realise what a novelty it was to hear frogs in arid areas like Alice Springs.
“They realise there’s a huge frog chorus, then realise that they hadn’t heard them for a year or two since the last lot of storms,” he said. “It’s only the male frogs that are calling and they’re trying to attract mates, so it’s a big group of rowdy male frogs that you’re hearing.”
While many grey nomads carry a set of binoculars with them on the Big Lap and are proud birdwatchers, it seems froggers are al slightly rarer breed.
While the practice of ‘frogging’ — looking for and documenting native frogs — is enjoyed by many wildlife enthusiasts, Mr Stewart said he thought of it as a bit more niche than twitching.
“It’s probably a bit more difficult in that it’s usually a night-time pursuit, it’s going to be wet and probably muddy,” he told the ABC. “It’s probably a bit harder too just trying to find some of these frogs. While they’re making a lot of noise they’re only a couple of centimetres long.”
Get out to the Alice and go frogging…before you croak 😉