A comparison of techniques for sampling amphibians in the forests of south-east Queensland, Australia

Abstract

We employed three techniques for sampling amphibians (nocturnal stream searching, pitfall traps with drift fences, and automatic tape recording of anuran calls) concurrently for six nights at 20 forest sites in south-east Queensland, Australia, to compare their performance. Nocturnal stream searching was the most sensitive sampling technique, detecting the most species with the fewest nights of survey. Pitfall trapping was the least sensitive sampling technique. On average, a minimum of four nights of survey was required to detect the range of amphibian species present at a site. Nocturnal stream searches and automatic tape recorders were robust in the range of conditions encountered during the survey, with no significant relationships found between temporal or spatial variation in their performance and weather or site conditions. This systematic study represents one of few to compare different techniques for sampling amphibians in a given region, and the first such study to compare automatic tape recording of anuran calls with other, more traditional sampling techniques.