Advancing frog conservation through FrogID

Saving our Species has established a new two-year partnership with the Australian Museum's FrogID program to strengthen threatened frog conservation across New South Wales by improving data analysis and machine learning capabilities.

Supported by a $160,000 investment, the collaboration reflects a shared commitment to using science, technology and community participation to improve conservation outcomes for threatened frog species.

Why this matters

Frogs play a critical role in healthy ecosystems and are widely recognised as indicators of environmental health. Because they are highly sensitive to changes in water quality, habitat condition and climate, declines in frog populations can provide an early warning of broader ecological impacts. 

Across New South Wales, many frog species face increasing pressure from habitat loss, disease and climate change, making reliable monitoring and conservation action more important than ever. 

By improving the quality and availability of frog occurrence data, this partnership will help strengthen the evidence base needed to protect and recover threatened frog species across the state.

How the partnership will help FrogID

FrogID is an international leader in citizen science, enabling community members to record frog calls using a smartphone. Experts verify the recordings and contribute to a growing dataset that supports conservation, research and environmental management. The partnership will help address the current backlog of FrogID submissions from New South Wales through expert validation, improving the quality, accessibility and timeliness of frog occurrence data delivered to NSW BioNet.

Every FrogID submission contributes to a growing body of knowledge that helps us better understand Australia's frogs and make more informed conservation decisions. This partnership will strengthen our ability to transform community-collected audio into scientifically-accurate occurrence records, helping inform the protection of threatened frog species across New South Wales.

Dr Jodi Rowley, NSW Principal Research Scientist and Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum & UNSW Sydney.

Enhanced machine-learning tools

A key focus of the collaboration is advancing machine learning tools to improve the rapid detection and monitoring of priority threatened frog species. 

By enhancing FrogID's artificial intelligence capability, the partnership will help increase the efficiency and scale of frog call identification of threatened frog species, while maintaining the scientific rigour provided through expert validation. This will support more informed conservation decisions and improve our ability to track species distributions and population trends across New South Wales. 

For many threatened frog species, effective conservation depends on having timely and accurate information about where populations occur and how they are changing. Improvements to FrogID's data analysis and monitoring capability will help us to better understand species trends, identify emerging threats and make informed conservation decisions.

Dave Coote, Senior Team Leader, Ecosystems and Threatened Species, Saving our Species.

Building stronger evidence-based protection and recovery

The partnership highlights the value of combining scientific expertise, citizen science, data innovation and targeted investment to address conservation challenges. By strengthening the flow of high-quality frog data and enhancing FrogID’s monitoring capability, Saving our Species and the Australian Museum are helping build a stronger evidence base for the protection and recovery of threatened frogs in New South Wales.

This collaboration also demonstrates the important role partnerships can play in protecting threatened species. We encourage businesses, community groups, organisations and individuals across New South Wales to consider how they can contribute to conservation outcomes, including supporting threatened species projects in their local area. 

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