Amphibians

Victoria’s amphibians include the pobblebonk (also known as the Banjo frog) and the southern brown tree frog.

Fact sheets about some of Victoria's amphibian species:

Common Froglet (DOC)
Common Froglet (PDF)

Pobblebonk (DOC)
Pobblebonk (PDF)

Southern Brown Tree Frog (DOC)
Southern Brown Tree Frog (PDF)

Southern Toadlet (DOC)
Southern Toadlet (PDF)

About amphibians

Frogs belong to a group of animals called amphibians. Amphibians live part of their life in water as eggs and tadpoles, and the other on land as adult frogs.

Like reptiles, they are cold-blooded, meaning that their body temperature is the same as the surrounding temperature. Their skin is usually smooth and slimy.

Frogs are carnivores. However, unlike most other carnivores, frogs' teeth are only used to secure their prey. Like snakes, frogs swallow their prey whole.

Frogs use their eyes to help swallow by pulling their eyeballs into their mouth to push food into their stomachs.

Most frogs mate in water and produce eggs that are protected by a jelly-like substance called frog spawn.

If the eggs don't get eaten by other animals or the water doesn't become polluted or dry up, tiny tadpoles hatch from the eggs.

Tadpoles are herbivores, they only eat plants. Like fish, they have a tail to swim and gills so they can breathe underwater.

As a tadpole grows, it slowly grows legs and lungs and its tail disappears. It moves out of the water and lives the remainder of its life as a frog.

The skin of a frog is very sensitive to the environment. They can easily die in polluted water. If you hear lots of frogs in an area, it means that the local environment is in good condition.

In areas where water or air pollution has occurred, the local frog community will be affected and there are likely to be very few frogs.

Did you know?

• The bulging eyes of frogs help them see in almost any direction.
• Frogs are great swimmers but have to come to the surface to breathe, otherwise they drown.
• Frogs were the first land animals with vocal cords and are usually identified by their croak.
• Some species of frog lay 4,000 eggs per breeding season.
• Some frogs can jump over 20 times their own body length. That is equivalent to a small child jumping over 30 metres.
• Frogs absorb water into their body so they don't have to drink water to survive.