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Australian Wildlife

  Giant Burrowing Frog (Heleioporus australiacus)





Giant Burrowing Frog | Heleioporus australiacus photo
male Heleioporus australiacus, from the Northern Sydney region.

Image by Grant Webster - GNU Free Documentation License.    (view image details)







FROG FACTS

Description
The Giant Burrowing Frog is a large grey or dark brown frog with a white underside. It has yellow spots on the side and a yellow stripe on the upper lip. In immatures the lip is an orange pink colour.The skin is rough. During thge breeding season males often have black spines on their fingers. Males call from burrows on the edges of streams after heavy rainfall. The call resembles an owl hooting.

Other Names
Eastern Owl Frog

Size
10cm

Habitat
heathland, dry and wet eucalypt forest

Breeding
Eggs are laid in burrows on the edge of creeks and are washed into the water during heavy rainfall. The tadpoles are very large growing to 80mm long.

Range
coastal south east New South Wales and Victoria

distribution map showing range of Heleioporus australiacus in Australia

Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Conservation Status
The conservation status in the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals is "vulnerable".

Classification
Class:Amphibia
Order:Anura
Family:Myobatrachidae
Genus:Heleioporus
Species:australiacus
Common Name:Giant Burrowing Frog