2024 – Another Great Year for Southern Bell Frogs:
A Success Story in Conservation
By Fleur Stelling and Skye Wassens
Featured image: Southern bell frog.
Credit: Emmalie Sanders
The Southern bell frog (Litoria raniformis) was once a common and widespread species across southeastern Australia, before undergoing a significant population crash, disappearing from more than 80% of formally occupied habitats in less than 30 years.
Long term monitoring has shown that key populations in the Lower Murrumbidgee floodplain have recovered, thanks in large part to targeted conservation efforts and environmental water deliveries to critical habitats. Recent monitoring efforts by the Murrumbidgee Team for the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder’s Science Program have reported lots of Southern bell frogs calling and, importantly, hundreds of tadpoles, following Commonwealth and NSW water delivery to the North Redbank floodplain and Western lakes.
Before the Millennium drought, Southern bell frogs were abundant across the lower Murrumbidgee floodplain, but the population experienced a severe decline after the year 2000. The drought coupled with increasing water demands caused a dramatic reduction in available water.
The increased availability of water for the environment has been crucial in supporting the recovery of the Southern bell frog. Since the Millenium Drought, water for the environment has supported key habitats in the Murrumbidgee to shore up the Southern bell frog populations, and 2024 was another promising year.
The key to the continuing recovery of the Southern bell frog lies in a two-pronged approach: fostering breeding opportunities during wetter years and maintaining refuge habitats during dry years. The delivery of environmental water aims to recreate the conditions needed for successful breeding, ensuring that frogs have suitable wetland environments to reproduce and for young frogs to forage and disperse. Conversely, during drier years, maintaining persistent refuge habitats becomes crucial for frog survival. These refuge habitats, often relatively small and isolated wetland areas that hold water longer than larger floodplains, provide the frogs with the necessary environment to survive over the periods when larger water sources have dried up.
Project Lead Professor Skye Wassens is enthusiastic about the recovery of the Southern bell frogs. “It’s just so exciting to see the Southern bell frog populations continuing to build – truly a good news story in the recovery of this threatened species,” she said. Her team’s work, which includes ongoing monitoring, has been vital in understanding the ecological needs of the frogs and in informing the careful management of environmental water by the Commonwealth and NSW governments.
Looking back on the dire situation faced by these frogs in the 2000s, when their populations were on the brink of collapse, Wassens reflects on the remarkable progress made in the years since. “The ecological renewal brought by targeted environmental water deliveries, and in particular, the flourishing of the Southern bell frogs is incredibly heartening,” she adds.
The success of this long-term conservation effort underscores the importance of science-based management and the strategic use of environmental water in supporting biodiversity recovery. As water continues to be delivered to the Lowbidgee wetlands, the Southern bell frog’s future looks much brighter, offering hope for other endangered species in the region. This recovery story provides a powerful example of how carefully managed environmental interventions can make a significant difference in tackling species extinction and ecological degradation.
The Murrumbidgee is a lowland river system with large meandering channels, wetlands, lakes, swamps and creek lines. Our work here focuses on understanding how native fish, waterbirds, reptiles and amphibians, as well as wetland vegetation communities, benefit from these targeted environmental watering actions.
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