FrogID Week 2022 – over 32,000 frog records gathered for research and conservation

FrogID Week has once again rapidly gathered data for frog conservation, receiving more than 3 frog records per minute and gathering more than 32,000 frog records from over 4,600 concerned citizen scientists. We are also excited to announce our Top Frogger of 2022!

The Australian Museum’s annual FrogID Week event produces a fundamental dataset for understanding and conserving Australia’s unique frog species. These expert-verified frog records now form part of the national FrogID dataset, which thanks to tens of thousands of FrogID participants across Australia, is helping advance frog research and conservation in Australia like never before.

Australia has 246 native species of frog, many of which are in decline. One of the biggest impediments to frog conservation is lack of knowledge on these small and elusive animals. FrogID is the Australian Museum’s national citizen science project that aims to help address these knowledge gaps, allowing anyone with a smartphone to record and submit frog calls through the free FrogID app. Every recording is listened to by one or more frog call experts at the Australian Museum. Once verified, these scientific frog records help build a better understanding of where frogs are distributed across Australia, when they breed, and what habitats they need to help them survive.

FrogID Week is the FrogID project’s annual snapshot of frogs calling across Australia which commenced in November 2018. The fifth FrogID Week was held during 11-20 November 2022 and was once again the most rapid collection of data on frogs in the world. In fact, the 13th of November was when 4,918 frogs were recorded in just 24 hours - that’s over three frog records per minute! By building a robust year-on-year dataset, repeat FrogID Week events form a vital component of frog conservation in Australia and enable scientists and land-managers to detect trends and changes in frog populations over time.

FrogID Week 2022 saw 4,684 participants submitting more than 17,700 frog call recordings, resulting in more than 32,000 scientific records of frogs! This represents around 4% of the FrogID dataset to date, which has remarkably gathered more than 800,000 scientific records of frogs in just five years. The expert-verified, continental-scale dataset is like no other and is thanks to the efforts of FrogID citizen scientists, many of whom brave challenging outdoor conditions to record frog calls for FrogID.

An incredible 111 frog species were recorded during FrogID Week 2022, representing just under half (45%) of all frog species in Australia. Frogs recorded during FrogID Week 2022 include the Endangered Fleay’s Barred Frog (Mixophyes fleayi) from the ranges of northern New South Wales, and the Critically Endangered Kuranda Tree Frog (Litoria myola) from the wet tropical rainforests of north Queensland. Threats impacting these species include disease, damage to habitat from feral animals, urban development, and drought. Every FrogID recording adds value to our understanding of frogs in Australia and what is required to better protect them.

The data generated by annual FrogID Week events have become an increasingly important resource for understanding and conserving Australia’s frog species. More than 96,300 frog records have been gathered through the past five FrogID Week events and thousands of new participants sign up to the project each year. Since 2017, a total of 13 scientific publications have been produced by the FrogID team at the Australian Museum Research Institute and the FrogID dataset has been utilised and cited by numerous other national and international publications. Without the incredible number of people participating in FrogID, these studies and their advancement of frog ecology and conservation would not be possible. While FrogID Week 2022 may be over, FrogID continues year-round, so please keep the FrogID app handy and help us continue to fill important data gaps through every recording.

Congratulations to our FrogID Week 2022 Top Frogger

We would like to thank and congratulate Matt L from the northwest of the Northern Territory for winning our FrogID Week 2022 Top Frogger competition by submitting a total of 566 recordings, resulting in 1522 frog records. Matt has won a FrogID™ Week pin, T-Shirt, cap, keep cup, FrogID snap cards and an Australian Museum Shop Gift Card valued at A$100. Matt was closely followed by Bryan West and Henry Lewis with 286 and 254 FrogID recordings respectively. We appreciate all the incredible efforts during FrogID Week 2022 and thank everyone for taking part.