Southern Corroboree Frog

The southern corroboree frog is a small frog endemic to the Snowy Mountains of Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales, Australia, restricted to a handful of sphagnum bogs and alpine and subalpine wetlands. It carries bold longitudinal stripes of black and vivid yellow, a pattern early European settlers likened to the body paint used in Aboriginal corroboree ceremonies, which gave the species its name. Unlike most frogs it produces its own alkaloid skin toxins rather than obtaining them from prey, an unusual trait among Australian amphibians. Chytrid fungus devastated wild populations from the 1980s onward, and the species is now critically endangered, kept from extinction by an intensive captive-breeding and reintroduction program run by New South Wales conservation authorities and zoos.