A species of frog thought to have been extinct for 30 years has been discovered in rural Australian farmland, officials said yesterday.
Australian Minister for Environment and Climate Change Frank Sartor said the discovery of the yellow-spotted bell frog is a reminder of the need to protect natural habitats so “future generations can enjoy the noise and color of our native animals.”
Luke Pearce, a local fisheries conservation officer, stumbled across one of the frogs in October 2008 while researching an endangered fish species in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales.
Pearce said he had been walking along a stream trying to catch a southern pygmy perch when he spotted the frog next to the water.
Pearce returned in the same season last year with experts who confirmed it was a colony of about 100 yellow-spotted bell frogs.
Dave Hunter, threatened species officer with the Department of Climate Change and Water, said the find is very important.
“To have found this species that hasn’t been seen for 30 years and that professional researchers thought was extinct is great,” Hunter said. “It gives us a lot of hope that a lot of other species we thought were extinct aren’t actually extinct — we just haven’t found them.”
He said the find wasn’t made public until now to allow enough time to establish conservation measures to protect the frogs from many dangers, including poaching.
Sartor said the discovery was “as significant in the amphibian world as it would be to discover the Tasmanian tiger.”
Seven of 216 known Australian frog species have disappeared in the last 30 years.
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