Description
The Northern corroboree frog is a small distinctively striped yellow and black frogs measuring 25-30mm in size. The Northern corroboree frog differs from the closely related Southern corroboree Frog (P. corroboree) by having more green in the yellow stripes which also tend to be narrower. Northern corroboree frogs are also slightly smaller than Southern corroboree frogs, which occur in Kosciuszko National Park in NSW. The decline of Northern corroboree frogs is due to disease caused by the introduced Amphibian Chytrid Fungus, which has caused the decline and in some cases extinctions of frog species world-wide. Other threats include climate change, drought, inappropriate fire, disturbance from introduced animals (pigs and horses) and weeds.
Habitat
Northern corroboree frogs use two types of habitat; a summer breeding habitat and a winter (non-breeding) habitat. The summer breeding habitat is sphagnum moss bogs and other waterlogged areas such as wet tussock grasslands, fens and tall moist heath. After the summer breeding season (January to March), adult frogs move out of the bogs into the surrounding woodlands and heathlands, where they spend the winter sheltering under logs, rocks and dense leaf litter.
Diet
Small black ants that are abundant in the bogs and woodlands where Northern Corroboree frogs live feature prominently in the diet of the species, though they will eat any invertebrate small enough to fit in their mouth.
Reproduction
Corroboree Frogs breed in pools that tend to be ephemeral and are often dry during the breeding season. The males move into the bogs or other wet areas early during the breeding season (January) and call from within damp vegetation (often sphagnum moss) at the margins of pools. The females are attracted to calling males and typically lay a clutch of around 25 eggs out of water in the males’ nest chamber in the damp vegetation. The eggs hatch into tadpoles when the water level rises following rain or snow melt (which may be anytime during autumn, winter or spring) and floods the nest. The tadpoles metamorphose into frogs during the following summer (one year after eggs were laid) and move out of the bogs to the woodlands. In a further two to three years’ time they are mature and return to the bogs to breed.
