Endangered invokes a Fauna Impact Statement in northern New South Wales

Ross Knowles^ and Michael Mahony^ 'Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Newcastle, NSW 2308 ^Department of Applied Science and Technology, The University of Newcastle, NSW 2308

Fauna Surveys for Environmental Impact The Director-General of the NSW National Statements once dealt almost exclusively with Parks and Wildlife Service determined that the mammals and birds. However, this may be Bellingen Shire Council should prepare a full changing with the advent of Fauna Impact Fauna Impact Statement with special emphasis Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/rzsnsw-other-books/book/chapter-pdf/2644394/rzsnsw_1993_045.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 Statements, which follow from the passage of on any effect the roadwork may have on the the Endangered Fauna (Interim Protection) Act Frog and its habitat. 1991. It was through this Act that all were The 's breeding season is included as fauna under the National Parks and from late spring to early summer. Its breeding Wildlife Act 1974, and thus received the pro- biology is quite unusual, with males making tecdon previously afforded to birds, mammals their single note mating call from small wet and reptiles. chambers in mud that are covered with leaf The Sphagnum Frog, Philoria sphagnicolus is litter (Anstis 1981). Occasionally rock crevices listed under Schedule 12 (Part 2, Vulnerable or Sphagnum moss are used as a mating and Rare) of the National Parks and Wildlife Act chamber. When mating takes place, foam nests 1974 as amended by the Endangered Fauna are produced containing a relatively small (Interim Protection) Act 1991. Even within its number of large eggs. The tadpoles do not range it is rarely observed by the public leave the chamber until they emerge as because it spends much of its time hidden metamorphlings. They derive all the nourish- under leaf litter in boggy soaks and streams, its ment from their egg during this period. The breeding populations are small, and it is fact that P. sphagnicolus stays in the nest from restricted to montane rainforest along the egg to juvenile suggests that the maintenance eastern escarpment of New South Wales from of a population's direct environment may be the Comboyne Plateau in the south, to Mt particularly important for its survival. Hyland Nature Reserve in the north (Anstis It is a positive sign that the NSW National 1981; Webb 1989). Australian Museum Parks and Wildlife Service has required a records contain only 18 known locations for Fauna Impact Statement that concentrates on the . However, recent work, including an endangered frog. It is a clear indication the current NSW Nadonal Parks and Wildlife from the authorities that the need to conserve Service's North-east Forest Survey, has found frogs is not only being acknowledged, but is a number of previously unknown locations now being acted upon. within the mentioned range. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This small, rare rainforest frog has recently risen to prominence by becoming the subject We wish to thank Chris Moon for drawing of a Fauna Impact Statement to be carried out our attention to the possibility of publishing in Dorrigo National Park. The Sphagnum Frog this note in a herpetology theme volume from was found in a small soak during a survey of the Royal Zoological Society. an area adjacent to a winding section of the main Dorrigo-Bellingen road. The Bellingen REFERENCES council is proposing to straighten a dangerous ANSTIS, M., 1981. Breeding biology and range extension for section of the road by cutting through one of the New South Wales frog Kyarranus sphagnicolus (Anura: Leptodactylidae). Aust. J. Herp. 1: 1-9. the bends. This however would bring the road- WEBB, G. A., 1989. Notes on the biology and conservation work into close proximity with the small soak of Philoria sphagnicolus (Moore 1958) (Anura: Myobat- where the Sphagnum Frog lives. rachidae). Herpetofauna 19(2): 1-6.

304 Herpetology in Australia