Five Things: How to help save the frogs

Five Things is a series of talks by Australian ecology experts that offers real-world steps you can take to boost biodiversity and to make your community a haven for native plants and wildlife.

On Saturday 5 November 2022, journalist and author, Ali Gripper, sat down with Dr Jodi Rowley for an intimate Q&A on Jodi’s life's work and to learn five things we can do to make our gardens frog-friendly.

Frogs play a crucial role in the balance of our ecosystems. Australia has over 240 known species of frog, almost all of which are found nowhere else in the world. With climate change robbing them of habitat, clean water and food sources, frogs are fighting for their lives.

Since 2017, Curator of the Australian Museum Herpetology Collection, Dr Jodi Rowley, has been championing the protection of frogs through citizen science app FrogID. Through people power, over 700,000 frogs have been documented, giving Jodi and her team of scientists an unprecedented picture of the lives and deaths of Aussie frogs.

Ali Gripper is the author of The Barefoot Surgeon, the biography of eye surgeon Dr Sanduk Ruit, who is restoring sight to the world's poor, published by Allen & Unwin.

She is a journalist and features writer with more than 25 years’ experience across publications such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and Country Stylemagazine.

Dr Jodi Rowley is the Curator of Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, leading the Herpetology department, at the Australian Museum Research Institute, Australian Museum & Centre for Ecosystem Science, UNSW Sydney.

A biologist with a focus on amphibian diversity, ecology and conservation, Jodi is passionate about communicating biodiversity conservation. Her research seeks to uncover and document biodiversity, understand its drivers, and inform conservation decisions.