Archey's Frog

Fascinating facts about the Archey's Frog

• In the dim light of night, these tiny amphibians hide beneath rocks, only to emerge and sometimes perch on low tree branches, showing a lifestyle that mixes ground-dwelling and arboreal habits. Their ability to live up to 35 years means a single individual can outlast many generations of predators. This longevity hints at a slow-moving life strategy that helped them survive unchanged for millions of years.
• Females reach just 37 mm (1.5 in) while males stay smaller at 31 mm (1.2 in), making them the size of a paperclip. Their smooth skin, longer digits and lack of webbed hind feet set them apart from their close cousin, Hochstetter's frog. Such tiny differences illustrate how evolution can preserve ancient traits while still tweaking details for local habitats.
• From September to November, females lay between four and 15 translucent eggs, each 8–11 mm (0.31–0.43 in) long. After hatching, the tadpoles cling to the male’s back for several weeks, and the youngsters stay with him for three to four years before venturing out.
• Field surveys estimate only 5,000 to 20,000 individuals remain in the wild, and a monitored group in the Coromandel Peninsula fell by 88 % between 1996 and 2001. The species has a low susceptibility to the chytrid fungus.
• A captive-breeding effort began at the University of Canterbury in 2002, later moving to Auckland Zoo where over half the frogs died, yet a handful survived and produced offspring in December 2012, with seven still alive by February 2013.

At a glance

About the Archey's Frog

Archey's frog (Leiopelma archeyi) is a diminutive, nocturnal amphibian that clings to the mist-laden ridges of the Coromandel Peninsula and the Whareorino Forest near Te Kūiti. Females reach up to 37 mm and males 31 mm, their skin a canvas of light to dark brown mottled with darker blotches, while the sides flash pink-orange-brown tones that are especially vivid in the Whareorino population. Unlike most frogs, Archey's lacks ears, cannot vocalise, and has unwebbed hind feet, giving it a clumsy, almost prehistoric gait that belies its 35-year lifespan. By day it hides beneath stones, emerging after dusk to forage on the forest floor. Reproduction is a wholly terrestrial drama: from September to November females lay translucent clutches of four to fifteen eggs, which hatch into tadpole-like froglets that cling to the male’s back. The devoted male guards the nest, secreting antimicrobial peptides onto the eggs, and carries the developing young for three to four years until they can fend for themselves. A surprising trait is the species’ chemical communication – in the absence of calls, these frogs exchange signals through skin secretions, and only emit a brief startle call when threatened, a stark reminder of their ancient lineage. DNA work shows it diverged from its sister species L. hochstetteri some 40–50 million years ago, yet its morphology and behaviour remain strikingly similar to ancestors that roamed the land when dinosaurs still ruled the skies. This living fossil continues to crawl, cling, and whisper through New Zealand’s high-moisture forests, a fragile thread linking the deep past to the present.

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