When Stacey Larke woke to find more than 300 tiny brown frogs in her swimming pool, she was baffled.
A self-proclaimed frog lover, Ms Larke was worried they could die, so she jumped into action and found herself wading around in her pyjamas scooping up tiny frogs at 5:30am.
"I started scooping them out with my hands and … putting them on the edge of the pool.
"Then I realised that it was going to be a mammoth task so I got the scooper duper and started scooping them out.
"I was pretty soaked anyway because it was raining so then I just decided to get into the pool in my PJs.
"I bounced around on my tippy toes in the middle of the pool, scooping the ones out from the centre."
What began as two frogs
Ms Larke lives in the tourist town of Broome in Western Australia's Kimberley, where residents have been inundated with long-footed frogs swimming in their pools.
Eddie Tran, who lives in Broome North, says most people with pools in the area were experiencing the same thing.
The population in Mr Tran's pool started at two but has grown over the week.
Mr Tran has been relocating the frogs to a vacant block next door and the pond in his children's fairy garden, but they keep jumping back in.
Frogs can drown
Both Mr Tran and Ms Larke say a number of frogs have died in their pools, especially those that dived to the bottom.
Jodi Rowley, curator of amphibian and reptile biology at the Australian Museum and University of New South Wales, says it seems counterintuitive, but frogs can drown.
She says while they are related to tree frogs, long-footed frogs are terrible climbers, as they have evolved to use their legs to burrow to survive in dry conditions.
They struggle to climb out of swimming pools and can drown.
Additionally, pool chemicals are harmful for frogs, which partially breathe and drink through their skin.
"If they land in a salt-water or chlorinated pool, then those chemicals are likely to really affect them," Dr Rowley says.
"So getting them out as quickly as possible is really important.
"There are these … frog ladders that you can put in pools, or [you can use] something that floats on the surface and the frogs are able to climb up on.
"That would really help the frogs out.
A life spent underground
Dr Rowley says the reason for the droves of long-footed frogs is heavy rain earlier in the year.
She says the frogs breed well during a good wet season and once they're large enough they start looking for water, although the long-footed frog spends a lot of its life underground.
"Then they'll start shedding layers of their own skin and secreting things so they actually have a cocoon."
Long-footed frogs will stay underground for months, sometimes years, waiting patiently for heavy rain, which signals they're able to survive and breed on the surface once again.
"They hold enough water in their bladder that can keep them going and they make themselves really waterproof," Dr Rowley says.
Dr Rowley is also the lead scientist on the National Frog ID Citizen Science Project, which is why she knew they'd had a successful breeding season.
"Thankfully, people were out there with the frog ID app recording the calls of many frogs, including the long-footed burrowing frog and they were going like crazy trying to breed," she says.
A good season for frogs
While it might be a bit of a nuisance scooping frogs out of the pool, Dr Rowley says frog populations are in decline and their abundance is something to celebrate, as it is a sign of a healthy ecosystem.
"In places where they disappear, there are awful consequences," she says.
"The streams clog up with algae because the tadpoles aren't around anymore.
"All the other animals start to disappear and decline as well because they rely on these huge booms of tasty frogs to survive.
