“Knick Knack Paddywhack, Give a Frog a Home….” (Sung to the tune of “This Old Man Came Rolling Home.”) While I was out orchid hunting I passed a hidden dam where Pobblebonks – a.k.a. Eastern Banjo Frogs were happily singing and yesterday my son sent me a photo from Queensland of a tree frog he had found in the air conditioner. These two incidents got me thinking about the status of frogs, which have been in worldwide decline since they started being closely monitored in the 1980’s. This matters because they are our canaries in the coal mine, telling us about the health of our environment and especially our water. The frog that came in from the heat - Gordon's Air Con loving Tree Frog It wasn’t that long ago that standing waters of any kind– frog habitat, were anathema to councils being associated with waterborne diseases and thought to be breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other unpleasant things. Swamps and wetlands were also r...
Practising Geographer - nature culture places people