Frog species now extinct

Innisfail’s own struts her beau

SINGER Ronan Keating and his Innisfail-born wife Storm Uechtritz have made another public appearance almost six weeks after they tied the knot. The glamour couple attended the Pringle of Scotland show during London Fashion Week. Keating, 38, and Uechtritz, 34, married in a lavish ceremony at luxury estate Archerfield House in Edinburgh, Scotland, last month. A self-confessed foodie, Uechtritz was born in Innisfail and now works as a television producer. The couple sat in the front row of the fashion show and were glowing after their African safari and honeymoon at sea.

Picture: TRISTAN FEWINGS/GETTY IMAGES AUSTRALIA’S threatened species commissioner went hunting for frogs in Kuranda’s rainforest last night, but there are four amphibians he would have been very lucky to find.

The State Government has declared three species of frogs extinct in the wild, and upgraded the conservation status of the Kuranda tree frog (Litoria myola) from near-threatened to endangered. The southern gastric brooding frog (Rheobatrachus silus), sharp-snouted torrent frog (Taudactylus acutirostris), and Mt Glorious torrent frog (Taudactylus diurnus) are all now extinct in the wild.

A Department of Environment and Heritage spokesman said the total populations of Kuranda tree frogs was now estimated to be less than 1000.

Kuranda Envirocare president Cathy Retter said the organisation escorted threatened species commissioner Gregory Andrews on a frog-hunting tour last night, during his tour of the Wet Tropics this week. She said the change in the Kuranda tree frog’s status would allow the organisation to attract funding to preserve its habitat.