Discovering frogs with the Australian Museum

For three years, Bunnings has partnered with the Australian Museum on the FrogID Project; a citizen science initiative aimed at building awareness and scientific understanding of Australia’s declining frog populations. By recording frog calls with the free FrogID app, Australians are helping the Australian Museum build a national database of frog species that is being used by scientists and land managers to monitor frogs Australia-wide. As frogs are sensitive indicators of environmental change, the FrogID Project also allows the Australian Museum to track how ecosystems are changing in response to climate change and other environmental impacts, including bushfires and drought.

Since partnering with the Australian Museum in 2017, Bunnings team members have visited local schools to build frog ponds and teach students about the important roles frogs play in healthy ecosystems. Along with building frog ponds, Bunnings team members worked with school students to create frog-friendly habitats with aquatic plants, rocks and other safe havens for frogs like frog hotels. Once built, the frog ponds are maintained by teachers and students with the aim to attract local frogs and enhance habitats available for supporting biodiversity.

More than 200 frog ponds were built in schools across Australia during the three-year partnership and the FrogID Project continues to have an impact across the country. Since the project began in 2017, more than 230,000 frog call recordings have been submitted by FrogID participants, which has resulted in over 376,000 verified frog records across 204 of the 243 frog species known in Australia.

During the financial year, when Bunnings store teams were unable to visit schools to build frog ponds due to COVID-19, Bunnings worked with the Australian Museum team to share online FrogID learning resources to schools with existing frog ponds, including a Bunnings video on how to maintain a frog pond. The online platform provides teachers with the opportunity to embed the resources into science and technology curriculum, allowing them to continue their FrogID journey online.

Bunnings is proud to have contributed to such a fantastic initiative, which has engaged the Australian community and continues to make a positive impact for frogs across Australia.