Native frog surprises scientists by climbing a tree

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-06-25 03:00

New Zealand

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New Zealand's largest native frog - the Maud Island frog - prefers to live on the ground of a boulder-strewn, leaf-littered landscape - or so scientists thought. Now ecologists have spotted some of the tiny amphibians climbing and sheltering in trees in Wellington's Zealandia Ecosanctuary. The researchers say they still don't know why the frogs climb trees, but the heightened habitat option should be included when building environments for those in captivity, or when choosing a location to release them into the wild.