By: Michael Fox
Mt Gravatt Environment Group member Morag always has hundreds of Green Tree Frog Litoria caerulea tadpoles which she shares with local children.
I remember as a child watching the amazing transformation as tadpoles metamorphose into frogs: growing legs and losing their tails before hopping out into the world.
Feeding on lettuce
Freya (7) and Clementine (4) took delivery of these tadpoles just before Christmas. About seventeen in all.teen in all.
Caring for tadpoles means boiling a lot lettuce to feed them.
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19 January and legs forming
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Four weeks and transformation is underway with legs growing.
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Fish tank cleaned and with rainwater from the family tank.
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Legs growing stronger
Time to leave home
Transformation complete, time to leave and find a new home in the gully. To date ten successful graduates, three tadpoles and two frogs in the tank.
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Unexpected dangers in urban habitat
Of course the journey to the gully habitat has its own urban dangers. Scott has to be careful when mowing. He had to encourage three baby frogs to gully safety last time he mowed.
Now that the semi-permanent spring has been restored to Fox Gully repopulating with our local frog species is an important step.
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Mount Gravatt Environment Group 
February 9, 2016 at 9:53 am
It’s wonderful to see green tree frog tadpoles and to know people are helping them breed. I’m afraid I’ve only seen big cane toads in my yard this summer. I used to see a few other species about. I would like to try to bring back the native species somehow. I think I may need to go out at night and humanely collect as many cane toads as I can find to give the others a chance. Lovely post, Michael. I have very fond memories of rearing taddies as a child and so do my children.
February 9, 2016 at 10:53 am
Thank you Jane. Yes, we need to keep chipping away at the cane toad pests.
One thing we sometimes forget is the name Green Tree Frog … it is interesting that cane toads and some native frog species cannot climb. So keeping our birdbaths and our frog pond up off the ground may help. Something for me to think about with our Pollinator Link project.
January 7, 2017 at 8:05 am
I was wondering if you could put me in touch with your member Morag. I am interested in getting some Litoria caerulea tadpoles as a learning opportunity for my young son and would also love to increase the population of frogs in my area as toads are a common sighting but sadly frogs are not.