Limnodynastes tasmaniensis
Silhouette: Jose Carlos Arenas-Monroy · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The spotted grass frog or spotted marsh frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis) is a terrestrial frog native to Australia. It is distributed throughout all of New South Wales and Victoria, eastern South Australia, the majority of Queensland, and eastern Tasmania. It is also naturalised in Western Australia, having been unintentionally introduced at Kununurra in the 1970s, apparently during the relocation of several hundred transportable homes from Adelaide.
The spotted grass frog was also formerly known as the "Marbled frog" in South Australia, although this common name is also used for Limnodynastes convexiusculus, a species of ground-dwelling frog native to northern and north-eastern Australia, and southern New Guinea.
This frog reaches 45 mm (1.8 in) in length. Its colour ranges from light brown to olive-green, with large, irregular shaped, green or brown spots on its back. Occasionally it will have a thin, pale cream, yellow or bright orange stripe running from snout to vent. There is a raised pale stripe running from below the eye to the base of the arm. The arms and legs are spotted like the back, and the belly is white.
This frog is common... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hattah-Kulkyne National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Flinders Ranges National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Flinders Chase | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 4 | Grampians National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | Kosciuszko National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melbourne | 🇦🇺 Australia |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cleland Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Spotted Grass Frog sighting in Melbourne on a given day, based on 291 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 4th most-seen of the 9 amphibians we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September to November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Spotted Grass Frog in Melbourne on a given day, against about 10% in December to August, the lowest months.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Spotted Grass Frog sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is seen both by day and at night.
Only Melbourne, in our data
Melbourne is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Spotted Grass Frog sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Limnodynastes
The closest relatives of the Spotted Grass Frog that you can see in Melbourne (genus Limnodynastes, Banjo and Marsh Frogs) are Striped Marsh Frog (about 20%) and Pobblebonk (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Spotted Grass Frog is recorded against all the amphibians logged in Melbourne (291 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
