SPECIES: Mixophyes balbus — Stuttering Frog, Southern Barred Frog
CLASSIFICATION: Vulnerable
H..h..ave you h..heard about the St..st..stuttering F..Frog?
To paint a picture, the Stuttering Frog - or Southern Barred Frog - is considered a large amphibian, at around 8cm in length, with large black eyes and brown-olive green skin. It has a black line from its snout through the eye and above the ear. Sounds like it's ready for battle.
Once quite a common frog from the north-east of NSW to eastern Victoria, it's now become a rare sight to happen across a Stuttering Frog. They are found in rainforest and wet, tall open forest, they feed on insects and smaller frogs and outside of breeding season, will live deep in leaf litter and under thick vegetation. Threats that have contributed to it's decline include disease, habitat modification, introduced fish and climate change.
And in case you are wondering, a Stuttering Frog does stutter with it's call, quite distinguishing it from other frog calls.
Photo: Froggydarb, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42...