Critically endangered Kroombit tinker frogs bred in captivity

October 24, 2023 7:09 PM

The Kroombit tinker frog is critically endangered with just 150 frogs left in the wild. After years of research, scientists have released the first captive-bred frogs. The Kroombit tinker frog is largely nocturnal and difficult to breed because it is secretive and can be located only by its distinctive call that sounds like someone tapping a glass bottle. QPWS has also deployed bio-acoustic recorders through most of the Kroombit tinker frog's range to monitor populations of the species. Mr Vella said the frogs' survival in the wild was being measured by the number of calls recorded.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (9 comments total)

Awwww. Oh man, what a time to fall in love with frogs...


If anyone with cash to spare wants to help, I found this wish list.

It looked broken at first to me, but then I clicked "next available day" or something and the list appeared. Everything seems to be at least $100 though.

Their sound is so cute.
posted by amtho at 8:11 PM on October 24, 2023 [3 favorites]

QPWS has also deployed bio-acoustic recorders through most of the Kroombit tinker frog's range to monitor populations of the species.

We made these at QUT. I mean, I physically made them, I didn't design them, I'm just good with a soldering iron. We made these specifically to track cane toads, which we could identify by their croaks with a machine learning algorithm developed at QUT, and deployed by the QPWS.

These were made with previous generations of Raspberry Pis. The 5th gen Pis are a problem because they don't have an analog microphone input.
posted by adept256 at 8:28 PM on October 24, 2023 [9 favorites]

No analog input? That seems like a huge problem for a lot of different sensors, and even buttons.

Australia's love of frogs is becoming a thing. First frog hotels, then Frod's various estate additions, now this... I'm a fan.
posted by amtho at 9:28 PM on October 24, 2023

Well there are the 4 usb ports, bluetooth audio, and gpio pins. But the 4-pole 3.5mm jack and it's associated pcm adc is gone.

And the audio output is through the micro-hdmi *groan* yeah they fucked over a lot of projects.
posted by adept256 at 10:26 PM on October 24, 2023

..What if you wanted to make a humidistat or thermostat? Is that even possible? (I use both for my frogs, so this is _totally_ on topic).
posted by amtho at 2:33 AM on October 25, 2023

Go little froggie!
posted by supermedusa at 6:45 AM on October 25, 2023

I'm always up for a Raspberry Pi derail (can you not just buy up a stock of the earlier ones with the input jack and A/D? And other SBC boards with analog inputs are available), and of course for any scientific achievement... but i find it hard to sustain enthusiasm for such interventions in nature. So many of the declines and extinctions are (or were) human-caused, and even without humans, nature evolves and is not static, and species will change or die out. And how do we pick which ones to preserve? What if this wasn't a cute frog but a foul-smelling, rash-inducing toad?

Forgive me, I'm pissed at the world this fall. Best wishes to Kroombit-tinker frogs and to those who are helping them.
posted by Artful Codger at 6:51 AM on October 25, 2023

What if you wanted to make a humidistat or thermostat?

BME280 or similar. Lovely little sensors that give temperature, humidity, and air pressure. Easy to interface (using I2C) to just about any SBC.

/derail
posted by Artful Codger at 7:06 AM on October 25, 2023

I always get a little jolt of good vibes when I read about one of these rescues from the brink. Good on Australia for funding this type of 'extreme' intervention.

I do feel a bit of a pang for the species in similar straits in poor countries, though. These nations don't have the resources to do this type of intervention and almost always have had far less impact on global heating than a country like Australia. Climate justice just doesn't exist.
posted by sid at 8:51 AM on October 25, 2023 [1 favorite]