Giant Burrowing Frog-(Heleioporus
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#61 This Action Statement was first published in 1994 and remains current. This Giant Burrowing Frog version has been prepared for web publication. It Heleioporus australiacus retains the original text of the action statement, although contact information, the distribution map and the illustration may have been updated. © The State of Victoria, Department of Sustainability and Environment, 2003 Published by the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria. Giant Burrowing Frog (Heleioporus australiacus) Distribution in Victoria (DSE 2002) 8 Nicholson Street, (Illustration by John Las Gourgues) East Melbourne, Victoria 3002 Australia Description and Distribution coastal slopes of the Great Dividing Range The Giant Burrowing Frog (Heleioporus below 1000 m altitude, between Gosford in This publication may be of New South Wales and Walhalla in central assistance to you but the australiacus Shaw & Nodder 1795) is a large, Gippsland. No records are known between State of Victoria and its robust species with a maximum body employees do not guarantee length of 100 mm. Body colour is chocolate Jervis Bay and Eden, indicating that the that the publication is brown above and white beneath with species may be composed of two disjunct without flaw of any kind or scattered yellow spots, usually capping populations. Gillespie (1990) gives a detailed is wholly appropriate for warts, on the flanks and around the cloaca. coverage of Victorian records since 1982. your particular purposes The back and sides are covered with small All Victorian records of the species have and therefore disclaims all warts each with a small black spine. The been from eucalypt forest of various types. liability for any error, loss There are no records from rainforest or ash- or other consequence which throat may be washed with brown and may dominated wet sclerophyll forest. The Giant may arise from you relying also have black spines, otherwise the on any information in this ventral surface is smooth and white. Burrowing Frog appears to use small flowing publication. In mature males, the girth of the forelimbs streams as breeding sites. Records of several usually exceeds the hindlimbs (never in individuals substantial distances from water ISSN 1448-9902 females). A series of black conical spines is indicate that the species uses a wide range of obvious on the first, and usually the second forested environments. The species appears and third fingers. The tympanum is distinct to be absent from cleared farmland and it and the pupil is vertical. The call is a low- may be dependant on aspects of forest pitched, owl-like 'ou-ou-ou'. More detailed habitats for feeding, sheltering and suitable descriptions of the Giant Burrowing Frog breeding sites. Four individuals have been are available in Lee (1967) and Cogger located at dams within forests but it is not (1992). known whether dams are used as breeding Records of this species are confined to the sites. Conservation Status To ensure the long-term conservation of all known populations Current Status of the Giant Burrowing Frog in Victoria. CNR 1993 Rare To conserve and manage the habitat of Giant Burrowing Frogs SAC (1991) Threatened at sites where they have been recorded. To attain greater understanding of the distribution, habitat, The Giant Burrowing Frog has been listed as a threatened abundance, breeding biology and general ecology of Giant taxon under Schedule 2 of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Burrowing Frogs and incorporate the information gained into Act 1988. all relevant CNR management plans. Reasons for Conservation Status Management Issues Within Victoria only 26 adult frogs, one juvenile frog and Significant areas of potential habitat for the Giant Burrowing three groups of tadpoles have been recorded at 24 localities Frog are within parks and reserves in Gippsland, however only (Atlas of Victorian Wildlife 1993) scattered over a large area two of the known records are within formal reserves (Snowy of central and eastern Gippsland. At the majority of sites River and Coopracambra National Parks). Four other records only a single adult has been found. have been incorporated into sites of significance from flora and During the last decade 25 flora and fauna surveys have fauna surveys in forest blocks in the East Gippsland Forest been conducted by CNR and its predecessors within the Management Area. Although not harvested under current known range of the Giant Burrowing Frog. Only nine practices, these sites are subject to review under the Forest individuals have been recorded during these surveys, Management Plan. Individually and collectively, these sites demonstrating the rarity of the species (Gillespie 1990). may not be large enough to ensure the species' long-term Given this level of survey effort it is unlikely that the lack of survival. records is simply due to an inability to detect the species, Information on species biology and population dynamics is not even with an animal as cryptic as the Giant Burrowing adequate to determine habitat requirements, impact of forest Frog. The species may prove to be widely spread at very management practices and status of existing populations. low densities or conversely to occur in small isolated Consequently definition of appropriate management strategies colonies. and prescriptions will involve a high degree of extrapolation Gillespie (1990) considered the Giant Burrowing Frog may from the ecology of other anuran species until such be adversely affected by current silvicultural practices and information is available. fuel reduction burning. These activities may damage Processes which threaten the species are those affecting potential breeding sites, diminish water quality and remove breeding sites such as changes to water flow and quality or to the litter and groundcover layers which harbour the streamside vegetation, or those affecting the wider forest species' food items. However, several individuals have environment, such as removal of litter from the forest floor or a recently been recorded near Nowa Nowa in a forest area combination of both. Such disturbances could include timber with a history of disturbance from harvesting and fuel harvesting and regeneration activities, road construction and reduction burning. Given the lack of knowledge of the maintenance, fuel reduction burning, weed invasion and species' habitat requirements it is inappropriate to re- subsequent herbicide spraying, and predation by exotic evaluate the effects of disturbance, particularly fuel species. reduction burning, at this stage. Consequently a Several individuals have been recorded long distances from conservative management strategy has been adopted. The waterbodies indicating that the species utilises, or at least research proposals contained in this action statement disperses through, forested areas between watercourses. should result in a better understanding of the frog's ecology Conservation of narrow buffers along streams is therefore and may allow modification of the management unlikely to provide adequately for all the frog's habitat prescriptions outlined in the Intended Management Action requirements and these buffers need to be connected to larger section. areas of reserved forest. Giant Burrowing Frogs use small flowing streams as Extractive mining upstream of breeding locations would breeding sites. Their tadpoles are likely to be adapted to the potentially conflict with the conservation of the species because natural fluctuations in stream flow, chemical composition of increased sediment inflow and possible chemical pollution and sediment yield of these streams. Fluctuations of stream of the stream. conditions caused by human activities such as timber harvesting and roading may not be within the tolerance Ecological Issues Specific to the Taxon ranges of these tadpoles resulting in reduced recruitment to The biology, distribution and habitat requirements of the Giant the adult population. Burrowing Frog are very poorly known. In its recommendation for listing under the Flora and Fauna The Victorian population is widely separated from the main Guarantee the Scientific Advisory Committee (1991) found NSW population centred around Sydney (Gillespie 1990) and that the Giant Burrowing Frog was very rare in terms of so will be managed as a separate entity. The status of the NSW abundance. population is currently under investigation but results are not yet available (M. Mahony pers. comm.). Most records from the Major Conservation Objectives Sydney area are from damp scrub and heath habitats on soils 2 derived from sandstone. This appears to differ from the these prescriptions would benefit any adults or tadpoles habitat types favoured in Victoria. present. The species is geographically isolated from congeneric All known Giant Burrowing Frog sites within the East species (the other five species of Heleioporus are found in Gippsland Forest Management Area have been included in the south-western Australia). The Giant Burrowing Frog differs planning process for delineation of Special Protection or from the rest of the genus in some important biological Special Management Areas under the Draft East Gippsland characters, notably time of breeding and habitat preference. Forest Management Plan. Research is difficult because of the dispersed nature of Survey records and the cryptic habits of the species. However a few Since 1983, CNR's ecological survey program has encompassed sites are known where it may be possible to study a number intensive surveys in a significant