DOMINION POST (Wellington, New Zealand) 19 March 11 Ancient Maud Island frogs embark on life in Karori (Kiran Chug)

After weeks in an incubation tank, a group of tiny froglets have grown up and been released into a Karori wildlife sanctuary.

The Maud Island frogs, which grow only to about 5cm, are one of New Zealand's four surviving native frog species.

In 2006, 60 frogs were released at Karori's Zealandia sanctuary, and are breeding successfully.

Victoria University associate professor of ecology Ben Bell has released five of this year's baby frogs into a wire mesh enclosure at the sanctuary where they would be safe from mice.

As froglets they were taken from the enclosure and kept incubated at Victoria University. This was to ensure they developed in optimum conditions – and to protect them from cannibalism by adults.

Now five out of the 12 froglets were healthy and strong enough to fend for themselves, so were returned to the enclosure on Thursday.

"Most frogs jump around and are very active. These guys just come out at night and sit there. They're easy to find and we can pick them up, identify them, and return them," Professor Bell said.

There are believed to be about 30,000 Maud Island frogs, most on Maud Island.

Professor Bell said the frogs were hard to breed in conditions different from their natural environment, but were now breeding successfully at Zealandia, where the first brood hatched in 2008.

"They are the oldest, most primitive frogs; they go back to the Jurassic age and are older than tuatara."
Ancient Maud Island frogs embark on life in Karori

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• NZL Press: Ancient Maud Island frogs - W von Papineäu, Sun Mar 20 16:27:44 2011