Tūhura Otago Museum science communicator Sam Edwards-Ingle said green and golden bell frogs were native to Australia but were introduced to New Zealand around Auckland in the 1860s.
Miss Edwards-Ingle said the frogs were "really cute."
"They have got that awesome really green colour to them, with mixtures of gold and bronze patterns."
When they were fully matured frogs, the females grew to about 9cm, and the males were a little bit smaller, about 6cm on average.
The green and golden bell frogs were semi-aquatic.
"So they will be usually near some sort of water body."
They could travel some distance from water but needed to return as being close to water helped keep their skin moist, helping with their respiration.
They were good climbers, with toe pads that acted as suction cups to stick to surfaces.
"They are quite able to climb about 2m off the ground."
Green and golden bell frogs were considered nocturnal but they also could be seen basking in the sun.
"Which is a little bit of a weird trait for frogs — frogs do not tend to bask in the sun, but this species does."
Their croak had been likened to the sound of a motorbike going past in the distance, Miss Edwards-Ingle said.
The frogs mostly ate invertebrates.
"We actually feed them locusts. We’ve got some small locusts that I feed to them every two days."
Some of the bigger frogs in the wild were known to eat other amphibians, lizards and reptiles.
During breeding season the colour difference between males and females became more pronounced.
"The males around the groin and the back leg area, they get like a rusty orange-y kind of colour and then the females get a bright blue hue to them."
Females could release tens of thousands of tadpoles in one go, she said.
Reintroducing a frog display to the museum for the first time since 2018 was a way of acknowledging the work of the late University of Otago amphibian conservation champion Emeritus Prof Phil Bishop, who studied frog conservation for more than 30 years before he died in 2021, she said.
