The Mount Elliot Nursery Frog is smooth and pale to dark brown above with scattered darker markings, which typically include a dark streak above each arm, an obscure interorbital bar, dark canthal and temporal streaks and dark facial markings. It is smooth and pale underneath with dark stippling and mottling and the discs of the fingers and toes are well developed. Males are up to 23 mm snout-to-vent length (SVL) in size and females up to 26 mm SVL. The male call is a short trill that differs from all other Australian Cophixalus species. The eggs of microhylids are relatively large and are laid in very moist soil. The tadpole develops inside the egg and when it has completed metamorphosis it hatches from the egg as a fully formed froglet. One gravid female Mount Elliot Nursery Frog was found to contain 17 eggs.
McDonald's Frog |
Cophixalus mcdonaldi
Status: Critically Endangered on the EPBC Act list
Government evidence of impact of climate change:
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Australian Government, Conservation Advice, Cophixalus mcdonaldi
Threats Threats to the Mount Elliot Nursery Frog include climate change; habitat degradation and introduced species.
Distribution modelling weather for congeneric species suggests it could lose a events e.g. substantial proportion of its available habitat cyclones; due to climate change (Williams et al. 2003 droughts Meynecke 2004 Shoo 2005 Williams Hilbert 2006).
Changes in hydrology and other effects of climate change (e.g. reduction in food supply) may also alter the susceptibility of frogs to disease; but these impacts are likely to be variable among species and sites (DoEE 2016). 2.0 Habitat loss and degradation 2.1 Clearing; Known potential Feral pigs are responsible for habitat damage trampling; and potentially cause adult frog mortality fragmentation; (Richards et al. 1993). altered hydrology 3.0 Invasive species 3.1 Yellow Crazy Known potential Yellow crazy ants spray formic acid to subdue Ants prey; which causes burns and irritates the skin (Anoplolepis and eyes of animals.
There is a single population on Mt Ellliot in northern Queensland (Zweifel 1985 Hoskin 2004) where climate change would be expected to have major impacts.
A continuing decline in area of occupancy and area; extent and or quality of habitat; and therefore number of mature individuals; may be inferred based on climate change (Shoo 2005 Williams et al. 2003 Williams and Hilbert 2006).
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