Harry Hines

Harry is a zoologist with extensive experience in eastern Australia. He has undertaken fauna surveys for state government agencies and conservation groups in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Employed by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) since 1996, Harry initially conducted surveys, monitoring and other research on threatened frogs of southeast Queensland. His focus was on stream-dependent frogs that had declined or disappeared. He was a member of the multidisciplinary team that discovered the amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis), which has subsequently been recognised as the cause of many frog declines and extinctions in Australia and globally. He has co-authored a number of papers on frogs and the amphibian chytrid fungus, a field guide to the frogs of the wet forests of southeast Queensland, and contributed sections on frogs to several other books.

Over the past ten years, the focus of Harry’s work within QPWS has moved from frogs to a range of other protected area management issues. He continues however to have a significant role in the conservation management of the critically endangered Kroombit tinkerfrog. This work includes the use of automated recording systems and call recognition software to improve greatly the efficacy of surveying and monitoring this species and understanding the factors that influence its calling and breeding behaviour.