Citizen-science records of Dainty Treefrogs (Chlorohyla gracilenta) in Sydney, Australia

Abstract

The Dainty Tree Frog (Litoria gracilenta) is endemic to coastal eastern Australia, with the Central Coast region of New South Wales just north of Sydney recognized as its southern limit. We investigated records of L. gracilenta in the Sydney metropolitan area through detection data from two citizen science databases, iNaturalist and the FrogID project. There were 42 unique records found, 60% of which occurred in the Northern Beaches local government area, with concentrations of detections in two particular suburbs. Similarly, approximately 19% of unique records were traced to one particular site in the Randwick local government area. These concentrations potentially represent established populations, though sample size limitations warrant targeted surveying to verify. In another six local government areas, records were broadly distributed. This preliminary study shows some degree of L. gracilenta persistence in Sydney, and demonstrates the value of citizen science for gathering such evidence.