Hochstetter's Frog

Pepeketua, Hochstetter’s frog, is a semi-aquatic native frog that lives along cool forest streams. Its brown-grey colouring and partially webbed hind feet suit a life among wet rocks and seepages. Hochstetter’s frog has a broad, granular body, dark eye stripe and more webbing on the hind feet than New Zealand’s terrestrial native frogs. Archey’s frog is smaller and lives away from permanent streams.

Scattered populations occur in the upper North Island, including Northland, the Waitākere and Hunua ranges, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and East Cape. Frogs remain close to shaded streams, springs and seepages under native forest. Adults hide beneath saturated stones and emerge at night to take small invertebrates. Eggs are laid in damp streamside cavities and hatch as tailed froglets without a free-swimming tadpole stage.

Hochstetter’s frog is At Risk — Declining (NZ Threat Classification). Sedimentation, stream modification, mining, disease and introduced predators damage its small catchment-bound populations. The species is cryptic and protected, and its stream stones should not be lifted by visitors. Sightings are most likely during authorised surveys in known upper North Island catchments.