Aja Pendergrast, Auckland Zoo
Sometimes even native species need to be protected from one another – such is the case with the Hamilton’s frog!
It’s #WorldFrogDay and we’re sharing conservation efforts for pepeketua endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand. The Hamilton’s frog is our largest of three surviving native frogs and has remained largely unchanged for around 70 million years.
On two separate trips in April and November last year, kaimahi from our zoo environment, design and construction team travelled to Takapourewa / Stephens Island in the Marlborough Sounds to build a fence for frogs!
We were there supporting our conservation partners at the Department of Conservation and Ngāti Koata Trust with their project to install an exclusion fence, protecting the frogs and other rare native species from the islands most voracious predator – the tuatara! The fence was first built in 1990 but over the years, tuatara on the island have figured out ways to burrow under the old one, creating the need for this rebuild.
It’s not just the critically endangered frogs that benefit; there are some equally threatened carabid beetles - including one so rare (Zeopoecilus green beetle) it hadn’t been seen for decades and was rediscovered building the fence! And though Takapourewa is mammal pest-free, the fence can help to serve as a deterrent to rodents or mustelids should there ever be an incursion.
Our keepers also contribute every year to conservation fieldwork for the Archey’s frog, spending nights surveying for these tiny 30-40mm sized frogs in Pureora Forest Park. As this species is nocturnal, the work begins after sunset and continues into the early hours of the morning. All frogs that are found in a 10mx10m area are carefully placed in bags and transported to a hut where they are weighed, measured, and photographed, before being returned to their exact original locations.
Every time you visit the Zoo, you support this important mahi. Spread awareness with your friends and whānau for our native frogs today!
