The peppered tree frog or Black Creek tree frog, speckled leaf tree frog or speckled tree frog (Ranoidea piperata) is a frog from Australia. Scientists saw it on the New England Tableland in New South Wales. Scientists have seen it between 800 and 1120 metres above sea level.[2][3][4]
This frog is in danger of dying out. It might already be extinct. Scientists have not seen this frog for sure since 1973. Some scientists saw and heard a frog that looked like the peppered tree frog in the 1990s, but their voices sounded different. In the 1990s, scientists decided that they needed to study the genes and DNA of this frog and its relatives before they could truly say which were separate species and which were not. Its relatives are Ranoidea barringtonensis, Ranoidea pearsoniana, and Ranoidea phyllochroa.[3]
Scientists are not sure why this frog is dying out. Many of the streams where it used to live have been changed by human beings who wanted to graze animals there. These streams also have invasive species, for example the mosquitofish, which eats tadpoles.[3]
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