Frogs and fans will be hopping

Opshop's lead singer Jason Kerrison came face-to-face with his newest and probably smallest fan at Hamilton Zoo at the weekend.

He will perform at the Waikato Times Hamilton Gardens Art Festival along with Dane Rumble, The Jordan Luck Band and Annabel Fay, on February 20 at 6.30pm as part of The Ark Tour, with a percentage of the proceeds from ticket sales going toward Hamilton Zoo's native Hochstetter's frog colony.

And on Saturday the vocalist of the rock outfit went to see exactly where the money would be spent.

The Ark organisation has created a series of "concerts for conservation" held in unique locations around New Zealand to raise awareness of the environment. A percentage of ticket sales will go towards the construction of a new enclosure for Hamilton Zoo's Hochstetter's frogs to help with the facility's captive breeding and research programme for the native species.

Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival director Sarah Bettle said that while the partnership with The Ark Tour was exciting on its own, being able to use the event to benefit Hamilton Zoo's conservation efforts stepped it up another level.

"Not only will the music and venue combine to be a sensational evening of entertainment, but the knowledge that everyone will be contributing to one of the city's key conservation efforts is just the icing on the cake."

Hamilton Zoo director Stephen Standley said zoo staff were thrilled to have the frog colony as the concert's cause. The zoo is home to the only captive colony of Hochstetter's frogs – one of four living species of frogs native to New Zealand.

They were once widespread throughout the country before habitat destruction and the introduction of exotic predators such as rats and stoats saw them restricted to the top half of the North Island.

- © Fairfax NZ News