This year World Frog Day is an extra special celebration for Alexandra Park Zoo which welcomes six green tree frogs to its exhibit.
The new zoo residents will be officially introduced to the community with the launch of their display on Saturday 20 March, which also marks the global day set aside to recognise the amphibians.
Zoo supervisor and resident frog lover David Flack couldn’t be more thrilled with Alexandra Park’s newest residents.
“It’s always a good feeling to add something new to the zoo, and I’m passionate to educate people about what I find interesting about frogs”, David said.
“But also it’s a good experience for our keepers to learn how to look after new, completely different species.
“We’ve got mammals and we’ve got birds and we’ve got reptiles – we’ve never had amphibians here before.”
He said the exhibition launch was timed to coincide with World Frog Day.
“It’s a global day for frog conservation, messaging and education.
“We thought we’d time our exhibit to coincide with that just to reinforce that message of conservation of our local amphibians.”
While green tree frogs are commonly found on properties throughout the region, David said the zoo exhibit was a unique opportunity to see them in action and learn more about them.
Bred in captivity, the large green tree frogs are used to having people close by and are always hopeful that that proximity means lunch time!
“Frogs, the way they target food is anything that moves,” he explained.
“They all kind of chase your fingers and anything that moves to try and feed.
“There’s one in particular that seems to like going for fingers!
“They’re always acting like they’re starving when they’re not.”
World Frog Day perfect time to leap into new exhibit
Parks and gardens portfolio spokesperson Cr Wayne Honor said to celebrate the World Frog Day and the new exhibit there would be plenty of activities available for the public on Saturday.
“We’re looking forward to welcoming people here to the Alexandra Park Zoo to see our new frog collection,” Cr Honor said.
“It’s important for us all to recognise the importance of the environment in relation to frog habitats, and consider what we can all do create suitable areas for frogs to live in.”
The new frog enclosure has been designed to replicate a backyard and the first person to find a zookeeper from Saturday 20 March to Friday 26 March will get to choose which garden decoration items will be placed into the exhibit for that day.
Join the World Frog Day activities:
• Search for 20 frog facts around the zoo
• See how far you can jump compared to frogs
• Pick up free colouring sheets
• Pick up free frog factsheets
Frog facts:
• Frogs are a critical part of a healthy ecosystem, and they form an important link within the food web as both a predatory animal and a prey item for higher order predators.
• Frogs can be encouraged to your backyard by providing breeding habitat such as a frog pond or hotel.
• If you have a pet cat consider keeping it indoors or in a cat run, as approximately one million frogs are estimated to be killed by pet cats each year across Australia.
Alexandra Park Zoo is open Wednesday to Sunday from 9.30am – 4.30pm and entry is free.
For more information about the zoo head to discoverbundaberg.com.au and to find out more about frogs for World Frog Day head to qldfrogs.asn.au.
So happy that these guys have been added to my favourite zoo. The zoo is a beautiful space and well worth a visit if you have a few minutes to spare.