Locally extinct white-bellied frogs reintroduced to Witchcliffe creek

Sixty white-bellied frogs (Geocrinia alba) will today be released in a creek near Witchcliffe in an effort to re-establish the critically-endangered amphibians in an area where they had become locally extinct.

Environment Minister Donna Faragher said today's translocation was part of an ongoing Threatened Fauna ARK project by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) to aid the recovery of the white-bellied and orange-bellied frog (Geocrinia vitellina).

"The frogs, which are at various life stages from metamorphs to adults, have been reared by Perth Zoo," Mrs Faragher said.

"This is another great example of collaboration between DEC and Perth Zoo in tackling the recovery of threatened species."

The Minister said it was important that Government agencies and the community worked together to protect Western Australia's precious native plants and animals. 

"That is why I have established a Threatened Species Council which brings together the chief executives of Perth Zoo, Kings Park Botanical Gardens, DEC, the WA Museum and WA's Chief Scientist," she said.

"The council is developing a community campaign to raise awareness of the importance of the State's fauna and flora conservation and co-ordinate research and fast-track actions for native species recovery throughout WA." 

DEC regional nature conservation leader Kim Williams said the translocation program's aim was to establish more populations and increase numbers of white-bellied frogs.

"This species of frog is confined to a limited and isolated ecological niche and is very susceptible to changes in its environment," Mr Williams said.

"When its habitat is lost or disturbed, the white-bellied frog can become locally extinct - the species tends to move only about 5m during a breeding season and less than 20m between years, making it vulnerable to even very small-scale disturbances.

"We have programs to address threatening processes that may affect the release site. Threats to the frog's habitat include feral pigs, illegal firewood harvesting, off-road vehicles and fire.

"We will be monitoring the translocated frogs. They have been marked so we will be able to calculate the survival rate of the frogs and see if there has been any recruitment between release groups."

Perth Zoo's director of Animal Health and Research, Dr Helen Robertson, said one of the greatest challenges for the white-bellied frog rear-for-release program was working with such a tiny species.

"The newly-emerged froglets are the size of the tip of a pencil and weigh just 0.03 grams," Dr Robertson said.

"Despite the challenges, we successfully reared 75 froglets from wild-collected egg nests.

"With only 200 adults estimated to be left in the wild and research showing heavy predation of egg nests, the captive rearing is an important step in increasing their chances of reaching adulthood."

The white-bellied frog occurs only in higher-rainfall jarrah and karri forests in the South-West and has been recorded at 115 locations but is now locally extinct at 22 of these sites.

This is the first white-bellied frog translocation and the first time frogs rather than eggs have been translocated - orange-bellied frog eggs have previously been translocated.

The translocation was funded by State Natural Resource Management (NRM) funds through DEC's Nature Conservation Division and grants from Perth Zoo Wildlife Conservation Action and ARAZPA.

Minister's office  - 9213 7250