A frog calls album hopes to overtake Taylor Swift and land the top spot on the Australian music charts.
Scientists want to raise awareness of the declining frog population – which has been in steep decline since the 1980s – by releasing an album of frog sounds.
The album features 43 of the most endangered frogs and the researchers behind it want to take Taylor Swift’s No. 1 spot on the ARIA Top 50 Songs.
When asked if frogs could knock the star out of first place, FrogID lead scientist Dr Jodi Rowley said: “I hope frogs can do it. It’s an album amazing for a great cause and we’ve had a great response so far, so fingers crossed.
“We need to get as many pre-orders as possible to knock these guys off the charts,” she added in an interview with ABC Australia Radio Canberra.
Speaking of the drop in frog numbers, she said the sounds are “probably something we’ll never hear in the wild again”.
“I really hope that these calls, especially these endangered species, ignite the spark in people to make sure that future generations can hear these calls and that we don’t deprive them of this opportunity.”
The Australian Frog Sounds: Songs Of Disappearance is a 50 minute compilation of frog songs from biologists and public submissions and proceeds from the album will go to The National FrogID project.
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The album is a collaboration between the Australian Museum and the Bowerbird Collection.
FrogID revealed that there have been over 17,000 public submissions of frog sounds this year and that each submission helps “advance our understanding of Australia’s frogs”.
The FrogID project aims to establish a “database of frog calls to document true species diversity, distributions and breeding habitats”, while connecting people with nature, as stated on their site.
The project has created an app that aims to collect these sounds from across Australia.
