During the Summer months the Peron's Tree Frog (Litoria peronii) or Maniacal cackling frog (don't you just love that name) comes out of hibernation.
We found him (for this article I will refer to him as a him) in various places around our garden, mostly close by to water.
Unfortunately he also liked to crawl into the water reservoir of our old water cooler.
Who else used to have one of these? Who still uses theirs? We start ours up in Summer when we are sitting outside on the decking and the fans are not keeping up with the heat.
Some of the frogs were lucky, as they 'cackled' when we turned it on and they were duly rescued. Some were not so fortunate.
The frogs are found on the Eastern side of Australia, mostly NSW, but stretching into Queensland and down into Victoria. As you can see by the photos, they vary in colour according to temperature and whether it is day or night.
We haven't built a designated frog habitat, but they seem to appear wherever there is water. We always keep a dish under the garden taps to catch drips so that the birds and lizards can drink.
Ann
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I love the name of this frog, does it sound maniacal when it's croaking? Frogs are one of my favourite creatures, they have such a fascinating life cycle. It sad that so many frogs have disappeared or are threatened by habitat loss and pollution. We used to see a few green tree frogs here but haven't for a long time now. Meg
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