ElizEnviro

Wetter weather over summer has led to a local baby boom for a critically endangered frog species in northern New South Wales. 

Australian Museum frog scientist Jodi Rowley identified 15 baby Booroolong frogs [Ranoidea booroolongensis] in a creek bed near Glen Innes in the New England Tablelands in late January. The species was rediscovered there in 2017 after a 40-year absence from the region, but numbers found have been low. She said the apparent baby boom was probably due to the La Niña weather pattern and would hopefully lead to a local resurgence of the species.

The Booroolong frog was discovered accidentally in 2017 when researchers were looking for two other critically endangered species, the peppered tree frog and the yellow-spotted bell frog.

“The biggest obstacle to frog conservation, apart from some of the threats, is that we really just don’t know that much about them,” she said. “Frogs are tricky and there’s just not that many frog biologists.”

Citizen scientists across Australia are helping frog conservation through the museum’s FrogID app. More than 13,000 people have recorded about 250,000 frog calls and their locations for the FrogID database.

“It’s been really amazing how much people have been ready to join the fight to save frogs, from landholders on enormous properties, from rangers out in the middle of nowhere, to people driving around the country in every walk of life recording frogs and making a huge contribution to Australia’s understanding of our amazing frog species,” Dr Rowley said.

“By having healthy frog populations on your property, including a diversity of species, it really indicates you have a healthy environment going,” she said.

Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-27/la-nina-baby-boom-for-critically-endangered-booroolong-frog/13189178

This post will collect my observations for the iNatters of tumblr project’s Scavenger Hunt. (For more, see this post by @pterygota)

An example of camouflage: Carolina Grasshopper

Something fuzzy: Delicate Cycnia caterpillar

Something spiky: Field Thistle

A symbiotic relationship: Common Greenshield Lichen

Something yellow and black: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Something brown and white: Common Buckeye

Something purple and green: New York Ironweed

Something really common in your area: Common Ragweed

Something not native to your area: Mile-a-minute Weed

A bee native to your area: Common Eastern Bumble Bee

A plant gall: Goldenrod Bunch Gall Midge

how to help a turtle cross a roadway:

YES, I just added you. WELCOME!

For those not in the know, iNaturalist is awesome, and is how I taught myself everything I know about insects. I’m not joking, I’m not exaggerating. I’m serious.

I have been super bad about keeping up with it (because life, and mental health, and then losing my job and being unemployed forever, etc), but I DID start a group on iNaturalist for us tumblr peeps to support each other and learn to use the site. 

iNatters of tumblr [link to iNat Project page]

There are some silly little logistical issues with the project. I have the project set up so that once you are in, every observation you have ever posted, even if you already have an iNaturalist account! will be part of the group! And obviously, every observation you make in the future will be included as well, automatically. 

But, I have to manually add everybody who wants to join. You can send me a DM or an ask here (comments on posts may or may get lost in the madness of tumblr, so contacting me directly is better). OR, you can send me a message on iNat. If you are a new user, you need to create observations because you have the ability to send messages now (they just rolled out that feature to deal with spammers).

If you want to have your observations linked directly to the group page, and want to be notified when I finally start posting to the group again (lol), then you’ll want to “join” the group. But! Your observations will still be included in the group as long as you are in the list! Let me show you:

This is the banner of the group. In the top right corner, there is a join button. Click it! That means you have followed the group, and if I have added you as a member of the group, your observations will link to the group page.

Here is an observation page that is linked to the group! This user is both a member of the group and has “joined” the group, which allows the project to be linked to the page (I know it sounds confusing, SORRY).

If you scroll down past the fun photos towards the bottom of the group page, you will see the project requirements. I am the group admin, so I set the project requirements. And I’ve set the requirements to be, any observations made by any people on the list, at any time, at any place, of any thing. But, the only way to get on the list, i for me to manually add you! Joining the group by clicking the button at the top of the page will not actually make your observations become part of the project.

If you are not on the list above and thought you were (sorry!), just let me know and I’ll add you! Want to join? Tell me your iNat user name and I’ll add you! There are no requirements to join! The whole point is to have fun, help out each other with IDs, have a network of people to ask questions to (you can send messages to people in iNat! INCLUDING ME! You can @ people in iNat and ask for ID help, INCLUDING ME!)

The group page has a post going over how to upload observations with the app in the news section. I haven’t done one for the web version of the site, but it’s a lot more straightforward, which is why I haven’t prioritized it. If anybody EVER has any questions about how to use iNat, feel free to ask me questions over there, or over here!

I do want to point out, I still have to manually add everybody who wants to participate (as in, have your observations post to the group). When you click the “join” button, for this project, it really means “watch.” I do try to go through and add people who clicked join without saying anything to me, but I haven’t been as active on iNat lately, so please just ask!

I’m not doing much to facilitate interaction right now (lookin for a JOB y’know), but I discovered that there is a Discord server for iNat!!!

Invite link to join the iNat Discord server [link]. iNat accounts are not required to participate, but highly encouraged! I’m Alysa on there (same profile photo as on here).

Elgin Chutes Provincial Park,