On The Rebound

Dr Jodi Rowley is using a mobile phone app on her mission to help frogs bouce back. Samantha Trenoweth meets Jodi, her extraordinary mum and a room full of their little green friends.

- Samantha Trenoweth

Jodi Rowley clambers through the damp, dense jungle of Cat Tien National Park in south Vietnam. It’s winter 2007 and all over the park, animals are under threat. A race is on to identify species. Jodi, a herpetologist (or amphibian biologist), walks quietly through the night, listening for frog calls and peering into shadows, when, in the torchlight, she spots one of the prettiest creatures she’s ever seen – luminous green, with perfect round toe pads and webbed feet, staring at her with huge black and yellow eyes.

“She was gorgeous,” Jodi, now 37, recalls. “I knew she was a flying frog but I thought she was a more common species, the Black-webbed Flying Frog. It wasn’t until a year later, when I saw one in the wild, that I thought, ‘Wait a minute, if this is a Black-webbed Flying Frog, what was that?’”

Jodi and her team had discovered a new species and it couldn’t have come at a more fortuitous time. Jodi was in need of good news. Just months before, her mother, Helen, had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and was struggling through treatment. As a tribute to her, Jodi named the new species Helen’s Flying Frog (Rhacophorus helenae).

Ten years later, Jodi and Helen have brought half a dozen frogs to hop through the greenery at The Women’s Weekly photo studio. Helen, who is facing the possibility of more treatments in coming months, is energetic, petite, graceful – and can’t contain her enthusiasm for Jodi’s work. “Have you seen my frog?” she asks, and whips out a picture of her namesake printed on a bright green tote bag. “I’m incredibly proud of Jodi. She’s devoted to these frogs.”