Hop along to Auckland Zoo and get to know frogs!

MEDIA RELEASE

3 October 2002

Hop along to Auckland Zoo and get to know your frogs!

To celebrate New Zealand Frog Week, Auckland Zoo will this Saturday play host to a special international ‘frog day’.

So hop along to the Zoo and join children’s television presenter and self-confessed frog-lover Suzy Cato. Suzy will be helping Zoo visitors get to know their frogs with two frog identifications sessions (10am-10.30am and 2.00pm -2.30pm).

The day-long event features a series of presentations by the Department of Conservation (DOC), University of Otago and University of Canterbury frog specialists and Zoo staff (in the Grasslands Room). The purpose of the day is to inform and inspire people to care about these fabulous and increasingly endangered amphibians.

The frogs being displayed and identified will be introduced species (such as the African clawed frog, and Australia’s whistling tree frog, green and gold Bell frog and southern Bell frog). Presentations will focus on both global and local species, and the challenges and threats they face. The status of frogs native to New Zealand, and the DOC recovery programmes currently in place will also be covered.

This exciting event ties in with International Frog Day, where people around the world are getting together to learn more about these fascinating animals and how they can help to prevent a global extinction.

Auckland Zoo’s Life Sciences Manager Glen Holland will bring visitors up to date with the Zoo’s conservation programmes, including an exciting upcoming project to assist with the recovery of New Zealand’s native Archey’s frog.

“In February next year we will hopefully be receiving around 50 Archey’s frogs from the Coromandel area. Due to the chytrid fugus, the Archey’s frog is declining at an alarming rate. The frogs will be the start of a captive breeding programme in case Coromandel frogs disappear in the wild. We are very keen to play our part in helping ensure its survival,” says Glen Holland.

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Glen Holland, life sciences manager, Auckland Zoo on ph (09) 360 3800

Leigh Marshall, Department of Conservation, Waikato conservancy on ph (07) 838 3363 or (07) 843 8462 a/h

Dr Phil Bishop, Department of Zoology, University of Otago on
ph (03) 479 7990

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