Frog Species of Perry Lakes

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Curious about that croak?  Identify six Perry Lakes species  with our user-friendly guide.

Limnodynastes dorsalis.   Call – loud ‘plonk’ or ‘bonk’, similar to plucked banjo string

• Large, relatively common ground-dwelling frog
• Found only in south-west of WA
• Status: Not threatened
• Size: Females up to 87mm long, males no bigger than 75mm
• Colour: Grey/brownish-olive. Irregular blotches or marbling of dark to black, on smooth or slightly warty upper surface (see photo)
• Calls are made by males when almost submerged or in dense vegetation
• Distinguishing features: wide, dark stripe across eye, extending to fore limb.  Underside is smooth and pale, white or yellowish. Bright orange to bright red groin
• Calls occur mostly in Perth's winter/early spring.  Can start in May, subject to rainfall
• Breeding requirements: semi to permanent water
• Burrowing habits:  May spend much of the year buried in sandy soils away from lakes or swamps
• Diet:  Primarily insects and worms, but will eat anything it can capture

For photos and audio of its calls, go to WA Museum website here  

Heleioporus eyrei.  Call – loud, long, mournful moan

• Robust ground-dweller.  Relatively abundant
• Found only in south-west of WA, mainly in coastal areas extending from near Dongara to near Bremer Bay
• Status:  Not listed as threatened
• Size:  Large, up to 75mm long
• Colour:  Back is dark brown or grey, mottled in dirty white or light grey  
• Distinguishing features:  Flanks behind front limbs are distinctively yellow
• Calls made by males, sometimes (and annoyingly) near houses. Call from a burrow that may become filled with water in winter. 
• Breeding/burrowing habits:  Males usually call only for a month or so after first heavy autumn rains.  Females enter males' burrow and deposit egg mass in damp soil at bottom of a chamber.  When burrow fills with water, tadpoles swim out to feed in nearby lake or swamp
• Summer dormancy:  Bury themselves and aestivate (become dormant) in moist sand when lakes start to dry

For photos and audio of its calls, go to WA Museum website here

Crinia insignifera .  Call – squelch, like a wet finger drawn over a balloon

• Small, common ground-dweller
• Found in wetlands on Swan Coastal Plain
• Status: Not threatened
• Size:  Males up to 23mm long, females up to 30mm long
• Colour:  Back - complex pattern of dark and light brown with grey blotches and/or stripes. Skin is either smooth or features bumps or longitudinal ridges
• Distinguishing features:  Belly is marbled grey and white with granular texture in both sexes.  Males show dark edging around margin of lower jaw
• Calls are made during late autumn and winter, when wet, but some males continue calling in late spring
• Calls often made from fairly exposed positions in, or alongside, open water and sometimes from dense vegetation in marshes and soaks
• Breeding:  Eggs are laid, either singly or in small clumps, in shallow water where they sink to the bottom.   A fine coating of mud masks their location 
• Tadpoles look mottled brown and grey with occasional white flecks, similar to other species.  Broadly rounded tail tip.  Usually found in shallows of permanent or temporary water. They remain still at the bottom, quickly burying themselves in sediment if disturbed.  Larval life is about 2 months

For photos and audio of its calls, go to WA Museum website here

Myobatrachus gouldii.  Call – deep croak  

• Medium sized ground-dwelling burrower
• Unique features:  Not reliant on water to survive and they burrow forwards
• Found only in south-west of WA.  Recorded in Bold Park and heard occasionally in Perry Lakes Reserve
• Name comes from unusual appearance - body shape superficially resembles a small turtle without its shell
• Status: Not threatened
• Size:  Adults up to 5cm long
• Distinguishing features:  Short, muscular limbs to assist burrowing forwards through sand, unlike most burrowing frogs which use hind feet and descend backwards into soil
• Calls are made by males from partway down a breeding burrow, making them difficult to locate
• In Perth, calls can occur after summer rain
• Burrowing habits:  Dig deep burrows up to 1.3m deep
• Breeding:  Couples retire to base of burrow.  Several months later, breeding occurs.  The delay between courtship and mating is unusual.  Up to 50 large eggs are laid, each up to 7.5mm diameter 
• Tadpole:  No tadpole stage; entire development occurs in the large egg capsule. Small, fully formed froglets emerge about 2 months after laying.  Delayed breeding means they emerge in winter
• Diet:  Termites. Their strong limbs help penetrate mounds
• Closely related to sandhill frogs Arenophryne rotunda and A. xiphorhyncha and forest toadlet Metacrinia nichollsii, all of which are terrestrial and live and breed in burrows

For photos and audio of its calls, go to WA Museum website here

Litoria adelaidensis.   Call – a continual 'grrk', interspersed with high pitched calls

• Common tree-climbing species
• Found only in south-west of WA, despite its species name 'adelaideensis' *
• Status: Not threatened
• Size:  Up to 45mm long
• Colour:  Body is pale fawn to bright green with dark stripe along both sides.  Back of thigh is black with mottling of bright yellow or red spots
• Distinguishing features:  Webbed fingers and toes with discs to assist climbing
• Calls are made by males almost any time of year, regardless of breeding cycle
• Breeding:  Late winter and early spring

* Possibly named after the Australian city of Adelaide (where it's not found) or Queen Adelaide, a previous queen of the UK, after whom the city of Adelaide was named

For photos and audio of its calls, go to WA Museum website here

Litoria moorei.   Call – like the sound of a motorbike changing gear

• Found in south-west of WA, where it is the most commonly encountered and widespread frog
• Status:  Not threatened
• Size: Up to 75mm long
• Colour:  Back is variable, ranging from green to gold mottling after basking in sunlight, to almost uniform dark brown colour in colder conditions
• Distinguishing features:  Partially-webbed fingers and toes with discs on tips, often used to climb and perch on low trees or shrubs.  Quite long hind limbs.  Large and powerfully built
• Calls are made by males from floating vegetation or within reed beds.
• Breeding:  Early spring, extending well into summer months
• Habitat:  Primarily terrestrial or ground-dwelling despite sometimes being called a 'tree frog'.  Migrate considerable distances from wetland breeding sites.  Often the first to colonise and breed in Perth's suburban gardens and backyard ponds

For photos and audio of its calls, go to WA Museum website here