The corroboree frog gets its name from the colors on its body. These look like the colors some Aboriginal Australians paint on themselves when they perform ceremonies called corroborees. Corroboree frogs crawl, instead of hopping or leaping.
Food
Corroboree frogs eat flying insects. They flick their sticky tongues out quickly, capture their prey, and then swallow it whole.
Habitat
Corroboree frogs live under heaps of rotting leaves in grassy wetlands or under logs and plants beside creeks in forests.
Tadpoles and baby frogs
The male corroboree frog digs a burrow by pushing soil or old dead leaves aside with its snout. It then croaks from the burrow to attract a female. She lays about twelve eggs in the burrow. The eggs are called roe or frog spawn.
Tadpoles first appear in the eggs like tiny black spots. They grow and develop in the eggs, and when water floods the burrow, the tadpoles hatch. They breathe underwater through gills, and have long tails but no legs. Then they grow strong back legs and shorter front legs. Their tails shrink back into their bodies, and their lungs develop so they can breathe air. They have become frogs.
Dangers
Corroboree tadpoles can be eaten by large water beetle and bugs, but usually some survive. Snakes, lizards, and birds eat the adult frogs. If a snake or other small animal enters its burrow, corroboree frog will try to protect itself by head-butting the attacker.
Barrie Sheppard
(Taken from English Skills in Context 4)