Fifty-three giant burrowing frogs went home to East Gippsland

The Guardian reported on November 5, 2026, that 53 southern giant burrowing frogs have been returned to a remote part of East Gippsland. They began as tadpoles collected from puddles after the 2019-20 fires. About 160 tadpoles were taken to Melbourne Zoo, raised through metamorphosis, and the species was bred in captivity for the first time last year.

The frogs released now are males about five years old, from that original group. Ryan Moes, a specialist amphibian keeper at Zoos Victoria, said genetic testing showed some of the animals were siblings, so they were not kept for the breeding program. Those frogs were raised and sent back once they were healthy. Herpetologist Matt Clancy said the adults were released after recent thunderstorms, at sites that had received 80 to 100 millimetres of rain. Each frog was tagged, and song meters at the sites are set up to detect calls.

Clancy said the frogs spend much of their lives buried in sandy forest soil and surface to breed in temporary creeks and ponds when conditions are right. Tadpoles can take from three months to two years to become frogs. The Guardian reported that Victoria has only five known breeding sites for the southern giant burrowing frog, recognised as its own subspecies in 2021. The news is this release of 53 tagged males, and that first captive breeding. It is not a count of every frog still buried in the east of the state.