Frogs and reptiles found at Black Mountain: Fifty years of records, from museum collections to community-based photo mapping

In this paper we review all available records of reptiles and frogs of the Black Mountain area in order to describe its frog and reptile fauna, and to compare it with similar reserves in the north of the ACT. The earliest investigation conducted in 1975–1976 using pitfall traps to survey Black Mountain Reserve detected four species of frogs and eight species of reptiles. Records of a
further nine reptile species were obtained from other reliable observers. Since 2009, the calls of frogs have been monitored each year at five sites in the reserve as part of the annual Frogwatch census. This has provided information on an additional four frog species not detected in 1975–1976. Because of its proximity to institutions like the Australian National University and CSIRO it was
expected that other systematic surveys of frogs and reptiles would have been conducted in the Black Mountain area. Individual specimens have been lodged with museums from these institutions, and observations reported in a regional field guide, but there has been no more recent comprehensive survey. There has, however, been a substantial contribution to knowledge of the area's reptile and
frog fauna from community-based records such as the ACT Wildlife Atlas, Canberra Nature Map and the Frogwatch program. Black Mountain's herpetofauna is now known to comprise eight frog species and 22 reptile species. Two species of monitor lizard, one skink and one frog previously
recorded from the area no longer appear to be present. The contribution that the Black Mountain area makes to the conservation of frogs and reptiles in the ACT is significant, with the reserve supporting higher numbers of reptiles than have been reported from the Mt Ainslie – Mt Majura nature reserves (18 species) and Mulligans Flat – Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve (17 species).