Melbourne Water Frog Census

The Melbourne Water Frog Census Program is a community-based frog monitoring program across greater Melbourne. The Melbourne Water Frog Census is funded and coordinated by Melbourne Water and run in partnership with the Amphibian Research Centre and Melbourne Waterwatch.

The aims of the frog-mapping program are to:

• increase community knowledge of frogs found in Melbourne, and to disseminate identification skills to on-ground participants
• increase understanding of frog distribution throughout greater Melbourne
• provide an additional Waterwatch activity that is both educational and enjoyable

Participation

The Melbourne Water Frog Census program involves the recording of frog calls by Frog Census and Waterwatch members and other volunteers at sites adjacent to their local waterways.

Participants use their own tape recorder. Recordings only need to be three to five minutes for each site, with the total number of sites being at the individuals discretion. Because frogs are likely to be most active one to three hours after dusk, teachers could visit sites on behalf of students.

Tapes are then returned to Melbourne Water, where they are registered and sent to the Amphibian Research Centre for confirmation of identification. Results of the frog-mapping program are available on Melbourne Water's official website.

Melbourne Water provides volunteers with a "frog kit" containing a blank audio tape, a pre-paid self-addressed postpak, and instructions on how to record frog calls.

• Official Melbourne Water Frog Census website

Training days

During the start of each census two free training sessions are offered. Although these training sessions are not compulsory, they are one of the beneficial parts of being a Melbourne Water Frog Census volunteer and will enhance your participation in the census.

The first session contains information about frog biology and how to identify frog species by their call. This will help you to identify what frogs are likely to be found at the sites where you take recordings.

The second session is a night-time training offered at various locations around Melbourne to teach you the skills and techniques you need to get a clear recording of frog calls. This session will also give you tips on how best to fill out the field sheet to allow for your tape to be accurately recorded in the Melbourne Water Frog Census database.

Bookings are essential.

Training sessions allow participants to learn about frog biology and improve their frog identification skills. Once trained, participants are able to identify frog recordings themselves and can even receive advanced training allowing them to send in a data sheet without recorded verification or help analyse tapes sent in by other frog census participants.

The official Melbourne Water Frog Census website

For more information on Melbourne Water's Frog Census program, please visit the official website or call Melbourne Water on 131 722.

• Official Melbourne Water Frog Census website

Event calendar

Check the calendar to discover how, when, and where you can get involved in the Frog Census. The event calendar search allows you to access events scheduled for any of the projects on frogs.org.au.

• Event calendar

Media archive

The frogs.org.au media archive project collects newspaper and magazine articles that have featured the Amphibian Research Centre or any of its projects including Melbourne Water Frog Census. Using the media archive search, you may access the entire archive.

• Media archive