Giant burrowing frogs (Heleioporus australiacus) are a robust species reaching up to 10 cm in length with bulky limbs and prominent tubercles for digging into the substrate. Males like this fellow excavate burrows on stream banks and call to females with a low owl-like sound earning them a second common name, the eastern owl frog. To secure their grip on females, male giant burrowing frogs are more muscular and have black thorn-like spines on the front feet. H. australiacus is currently listed as vulnerable due to population declines in the last decade, likely a result of urbanization and habitat loss — an ongoing trend with herpetofauna around the world.
Photographed after disturbance [4]
