The status of the frog fauna of the werribee river catchment, southern Victoria, with notes on the utility of large databases in such an assessment

摘要

The Werribee River catchment, north and west of Melbourne, has experienced major change since European settlement, including the transformation or loss of native vegetation through agriculture and urbanisation. The se changes are likely to have infl uenced the original frog fauna, although this cannot be confi rmed since no broad-scale monitoring of the frog fauna in the catchment has been undertaken. Like all of Victoria's catchment areas, the main inventory of the frog fauna in the Werribee River catchment is the Victorian Government's Atlas of Victorian Wildlife database. Reliable records exist for 11 frog species in the Werribee River catchment, some dating back to 1959. Importantly, there are records for two species, Growling Grass Frog Litoria raniformis and Bibron's Toadlet Pseudophryne bibronii, which are offi cially threatened in Victoria. Species recorded from the catchment display a variety of ecological preferences (e.g. riverine specialists, semiterrestrial breeders, burrowers, and wetland or slow-fl owing river species), highlighting the importance of conserving and managing appropriately varied and interconnected habitats. In this paper, the Werribee River Catchment, a typical and recognised management unit, is used as a case study to examine the utility of available data for the management of frogs, and summarise the likely existing threats to this assemblage.