In 2008, I was appointed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources as international ambassador for the frog—and when I was in New Zealand, I met another ambassador, Phil Bishop. He presented me with a painting of Hamilton’s frogs. They are attractive, brown with black markings—and, Phil told me, they can live to be quite old. He recently found a female whom he had banded as an adult thirty-five years ago! This is one of the rarest frogs in the world—in 2004, there were only about three hundred individuals remaining in a small habitat (about 300 sq.metres or three thousand square feet) on Stephens Island. This small population had been closely monitored for a number of years by the Department of Conservation. It was remaining stable, but it was clear that its very small remnant habitat had reached carrying capacity.

Of course it is risky when there is only one small population in only one place, and it seemed important to establish a second. First Phil’s group searched for a new habitat. They chose Nukuwaiata Island and prepared it for new arrivals, building some rock banks and installing a boardwalk over them so that researchers could monitor the population without risking stepping on the frogs or on rocks that could move and inadvertently squash a frog below.

Then they worked out how many frogs they could remove without harming the original population, while also giving the second population a good chance of becoming self-sufficient. Of course there was controversy—many people felt the original Stephens Island population might suffer and should be left alone, keeping the eggs in one basket. “But we went ahead anyway,” said Phil, for they were fairly confident of their mathematical model. And so, over a two-year period (2004 to 2006), they moved eighty frogs to Nukuwaiata.

Since then, both populations have been monitored. And, said Phil, “this is where the good news comes in—there appears to be no significant impact to the source population and this year (2008) in June we discovered the first baby frogs on Nukuwaiata.” Although it will be some time before they know whether the new population is self-sustaining, “we have achieved a milestone as they have been successful in reproducing in their new environment and all of a sudden we have our ‘eggs’ in two baskets, thereby significantly decreasing the risk posed to our single population of the World’s rarest frog!”