Reef and Rivers podcast | Using eDNA to find endangered frogs

Podcast: Using eDNA to find endangered frogs.

SEASON 4 | EPISODE 7

It means that we can narrow down the search area by screening an entire catchment – we don’t need to go to every single creek, as we had to do with traditional methods.

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For a long time the study of animals and how they interact with their environment has been fieldwork-based, but new eDNA technology is taking a lot of the ‘field’ out of the equation when it comes to searching for an endangered frog.

Trying to find endangered frogs in the Wet Tropics is like looking for a needle in a haystack thanks to small populations and immense amounts of tributaries, but environmental DNA can greatly narrow down the search area. The genetic material left by organisms in the environment – like secreted faeces, mucous and gametes can be picked up more than 20km downstream, making eDNA an ideal tool to save time and effort.

In this episode we’re joined by Dr Cecilia Villacorta Rath, a researcher with TropWater at James Cook University to find out how eDNA has revolutionised the way she and the TropWater team monitor the distribution of frogs.