Photo of Animalia: Red-backed Toadlet (species: Pseudophryne coriacea)

Red-backed Toadlet (Pseudophryne coriacea)

© Troy Bell

While I hope he wasn't having night terrors, I think he was freezing as a defense mechanism. When I rolled this guy over gently with a twig he was all stiff and didn't move at all. I found another that didn't quite freeze up but didn't jump or crawl away either. I've found these guys in dirt riverbeds before but these guys were in grassland and behaving like some Crinia species I find that like to hide at the base of a tuft of grass. They also stopped calling when you got close which made it all the more difficult to spot them.

Photo taken on 5 Jun 2009