Freddie the frog at Flamingo land Zoo is a White’s tree frog from Northeast Australia, Indonesia and the surrounding islands. Unlike many frogs, his species is not threatened but, globally, amphibian decline is widespread for a number of reasons.

Increased global transport has led to the spread of fungal diseases deadly to frogs and other amphibians, most notably chytrid fungus. This is thought to infect 30% of all amphibian species. Other factors that threaten frogs include changing climate, habitat destruction and global pet and food trades. Unless we act quickly many species of frog will go extinct – sadly it is too late for the unique Gastric brooding frog that became extinct in Australia in the 1980’s. Gastric brooding frogs were the only known frogs that ate their eggs, suppressing digestion to let their tadpoles hatch and grow in their stomachs, before the froglets emerged from their mother’s mouth.

It is too late for this wonderful species, but by supporting habitat protection programmes, such as UFP at Flamingo land we can better protect other distinctive amphibians in the future.