Frogs are amongst the most-threatened groups of animals on the planet. In Australia, we've lost at least four of our 240 known frog species to extinction and dozens more are threatened.
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Recent drought and fires across Australia are impacting our frogs, with fewer frogs calling and nights growing quieter throughout much of the country.
We need your help to understand how different frog species are responding - and hopefully then recovering - from drought and fires.
Frogs are very sensitive to environmental change, including weather and climate.
This is in part because frogs are ectotherms ('cold-blooded'), depending on the temperature of their environment to regulate their own temperature.
They also have thin, permeable skin and require water (or, for a few species, just very humid environments), to lay their eggs.
Every aspect of their behaviour, reproduction and survival is dependent on either temperature or moisture (or both). Frogs are also a vital part of healthy ecosystems.
Their ability to survive recent fire events, particularly combined with drought conditions, is unknown. People across Australia have already begun to reveal the impact ... via the national citizen science project, FrogID.
The past few years have seen much drier and hotter than average conditions over much of Australia, particularly in the east, and throughout spring and summer of 2019 and 2020, millions of hectares have burnt across Australia.
Many of Australia's frogs, particularly those that live in the more arid parts of the country or those with an annual dry season, are adapted to handle the often hot, dry conditions - including species that can wait out the dry times by burrowing underground for months or even years until rains fall.
However, other frog species are adapted to relatively constant cool, wet conditions of the rainforest.
The impact of drought on different frog species and in different parts of Australia, is therefore likely to vary.
Fires are also a part of most Australian terrestrial ecosystems, but very little is known about which Australian frog species are most sensitive to fires, and how fires of this scale may impact them.
Recent fires in the rainforests of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland are likely to pose a particular threat to frog species that are adapted to life in the rainforest, and found only in small areas - these include the tiny pouched frog and the fat little mountain frogs - these species live in the usually cool, damp mud at the headwaters of rainforest streams.
These frogs are not adapted to fires and their ability to survive recent fire events, particularly combined with drought conditions, is unknown.
People across Australia have already begun to reveal the impact of drought on frogs via the national citizen science project, FrogID.
This project, with more than 200,000 frog records contributed already, relies on the fact that each species of frog has a different sounding call. Male frogs call out to attract female frogs to mate with, revealing their identity.
By downloading the free FrogID app on your smartphone, you can record and submit any frog calls you hear, helping us understand where different frog species are, and how they are doing.
Like most Australians, frogs have had a tough time of late- with droughts followed by fires.
In many parts of the country, frogs have been eerily silent. Even relatively common frog species such as the large burrowing eastern banjo frog and northern banjo frog, have been noticeably quieter. We hold grave fears for other frog species hit hard by fires- including the stream-breeding barred frogs.
While many frog species are thought to "bounce back" after disturbance, we do not know the impact of such long periods of hot and dry conditions on frogs, or how this unique combination of drought, fires and other threats are impacting Australia's frogs.
The future is even more uncertain, with climate change predicted to increase the frequency of extreme heat events, decrease rainfall across southern parts of the country, and increase the length of the fire season across large parts of Australia.
It's never been more important or easier to monitor frogs, and the health of your local ecosystems.
Together, we can better understand Australia's frogs, and inform their conservation - helping to ensure the croaks, ribbits and whistles of frogs fill the night (especially after rain) for generations to come.
Dr Jodi Rowley is curator of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Biology at the Australian Museum and UNSW Sydney.
