ANNE LAYTON-BENNETT and JOHN DONNACHY
Ivan Dean’s dismissive comment about green & gold frogs being “obviously . . . plentiful” merely serves to demonstrate his lack of knowledge about the species. (Examiner 31/07/09). Green & gold frogs are listed as ‘vulnerable’ at both state and federal levels.
Some wildlife biologists believe this listing should be raised to ‘endangered’ due to the spread of the chytrid fungus that is decimating frog populations globally.
When we moved to the area 15 years ago local vet and amphibian enthusiast Paul Switkowski was so excited to learn we regularly saw these frogs on our Los Angelos Road property, he spent an afternoon here monitoring their numbers.
More recently other frog and wildlife experts have visited, and expressed their surprise and pleasure that the Swan Bay region has emerged as a Noah’s Ark for the species, given their numbers have either dramatically declined, or completely disappeared elsewhere in the Tamar Valley.
Green & gold frogs are as important to our ecology as the Tasmanian devil, the Tasmanian wedgetailed eagle, and the Tasmanian platypus, and we should not be risking their habitat, and their survival, because of an inappropriate and controversial subdivision that will irrevocably damage the aesthetic appeal of the area.
Yours sincerely,
Anne Layton-Bennett &
John Donnachy
Swan Bay 7252
