You may find one or more of these hopping around your garden. It’s mainly brown with a green stripe down its back. You may hear it — its call is a kind of rawk rawk hmm hmm (or perhaps like a car that won’t start). He aha tērā? What is that?
Answer: it’s a Southern Bell Frog:
The Southern Bell Frog, Litoria raniformis, is the largest frog to be found in New Zealand with females reaching over 100mm. They are similarly coloured to the Green and Golden Bell Frog but often have a warty back. They generally have more dark brown or black blotches on the back and there is always a pale green stripe down the middle of their back. … The back of their thighs and groin area are bright blue to turquoise and the belly looks granular. The fingers lack webbing while the toes are almost completely webbed. There are no suckers on the ends of their toes or fingers. This species was introduced to New Zealand in the late 1860s from Tasmania by the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society.
