New Zealand’s frogs are said to be ‘un-frog-like’ ?
Research shows that New Zealand frog species belong to an ancient and primitive family that no longer exists anywhere else in the world. The frogs themselves haven’t changed much in 70 million years!
They are small, nocturnal and hard to see as they camouflage themselves well. Two of our species, Archey’s and Hamilton’s frog, live on land in shady, moist forested areas, and the Horchstetter’s frog is semi-aquatic, living on stream edges.
New Zealand’s native frogs have several distinctive features that make them very different from frogs elsewhere in the world:
- they have no external eardrum
- they have round (not slit) eyes
- they don’t croak regularly like most frogs.
Archey’s and Hamilton’s frog don’t have a tadpole stage. The embryo develops inside an egg, and then hatches as an almost fully formed frog. Parents then care for their young – for example, the male Archey’s frog may carry his young offspring around on his back.
Hochstetter’s frog, which is semi-aquatic, does have a tadpole-like stage and the embryos can swim after hatching.
There are also three introduced species of frog in New Zealand. These species are easily distinguished from native frogs because they have loud mating calls and pass through a tadpole stage.
THREATENED: A frog’s habitat is the environment in which it feeds, shelters and breeds. If it cannot find suitable habitat, it will die. So habitat loss and disruption is the greatest threat to frogs.
Thanks to Department of Conservation NZ
