Abstract

The University of Otago Frog Group developed a co-research project with Huanui College, a secondary school located in Whangarei, Northland region. The aim of this work was to characterise microhabitat features of a Leiopelma hochstetteri population, as well as to disseminate native frog conservation awareness amongst the participants. To characterise microhabitat features, we searched for frogs in a section of a stream located on Department of Conservation (DOC) land, accompanied by a DOC staff member (Tony Beauchamp). To ensure that volunteers collected high-quality information, they attended a two-day theoretical-practical workshop in which all the field topics were covered. Students were always accompanied by a frog expert (i.e. university student/staff, DOC personnel) in the field. Each frog that we found was used as the centre of a 1 m2 quadrat, subdivided into 100 10 cm × 10 cm squares. These squares were classified according to their dominant coverage feature (e.g. vegetation, sand, gravel, cobble, boulder, leaf litter, woody debris, log). For every frog found, three additional quadrats were allocated and measured in nearby areas. No microhabitat differences were found between quadrats with frogs (N = 6) and quadrats without frogs (N = 13). Although more replicates are needed, our analyses validated the use of these data for management purposes, as these results follow similar patterns reported for other wild populations of this species. This project exemplifies the feasibility of generating useful natural-history information for frog management while empowering participants as ambassadors of amphibian conservation through their experience of being scientists for a day.