Unusual Stony Creek Frog

With all the rain, ergo not a lot of work it's easy, [for me anyway] to get a little down and restless. However, like they say; every cloud has a silver lining and this one just happened to hop into our garden last night.

He's a Stony-creek frog and was showing some pretty interesting colours, perhaps in transition to his breeding colouration of bright yellow.

Litoria sp



There seems to be some confusion over the species [of course]. The QLD museum publication 'Wildlife of Tropical North Queensland' - 2007 lists them as Litoria lesueuri, but it was described as a new species in 2004 and is now either Litoria wilcoxi or Litoria jungguy.

I'm going with the idea that this is Litoria wilcoxi but I honestly can't say for sure.

Like all 'rocket frogs', as the name suggests, they can really jump and it's not unusual to see them sailing through the air over and sadly sometimes into, the bonnet of the car when driving at night.

They are terrestrial [ground dwelling] and nocturnal with the females being larger than the males [male pictured]. They appear to be locally common but no doubt are under the same threats as amphibians the world over - with habitat destruction and pollution being two major concerns. Competition with Cane Toads,  predation by feral animals and being killed on roads are probably also issues.

Still it's always nice to see them around, maybe we'll be lucky enough to have some tadpoles about the place soon too.

Have a great day :)

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