title: Population recovery following decline in an endangered stream-breeding frog (Mixophyes fleayi) from subtropical Australia.
abstract: Amphibians have undergone dramatic declines and extinctions worldwide. Prominent among these have been the stream-breeding frogs in the rainforests of eastern Australia. The amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has been postulated as the primary cause of these declines. We conducted a capture-mark-recapture study over a 7-year period on the endangered Fleay's barred frog (Mixophyes fleayi) at two independent streams (30 km apart) in order to assess the stability of these populations. This species had undergone a severe decline across its narrow geographic range. Mark-recapture modelling showed that the number of individuals increased 3-10 fold along stream transects over this period. Frog detection probabilities were frequently above 50% but declined as the populations increased. Adult survival was important to overall population persistence in light of low recruitment events, suggesting that longevity may be a key factor in this recovery. One male and female were present in the capture record for >6 years. This study provides an unambiguous example of population recovery in the presence of Bd.
authors.affiliation: School of Environment, Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, New South Wales, Australia. david.newell@scu.edu.au
authors.forename: David Alan
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Newell
authors.forename: Ross Lindsay
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Goldingay
authors.forename: Lyndon Owen
authors.initials: LO
authors.lastname: Brooks
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001001:Anura; D001315:Australia; D056727:Endangered Species / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011336:Probability; D014329:Tropical Climate