Giant Burrowing Frog

About the Giant Burrowing Frog

The giant burrowing frog or eastern owl frog (Heleioporus australiacus) is a large frog species that occurs in coastal south-east New South Wales and Victoria in Australia. It is also known as the owl frog, southern owl frog, spotted owl frog, burrowing owl frog.

This is a large species of frog, up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in length. It is normally grey, dark brown or black on the back. It is white on the belly. There are yellow spots on the side and a yellow stripe on the upper lip, from the back of the eye to the back of the tympanum. In metamorph frogs, this stripe is pink-orange in colour. The skin is rough and bumpy, males often have black spines on their fingers during the breeding season. The iris is silver and the pupil is vertical.

This is quite a large species of frog and the largest frog in Victoria. It is often mistaken for the cane toad because of its large size and bumpy skin; however, cane toads do not have vertical irises, and the range of the cane toad currently does not overlap into giant burrowing frog habitat.

This species inhabits sandstone heathland, dry, and also wet sclerophyll forest from north of Sydney to eastern... Wikipedia →