Green Tree Frog

ORDER: Anura

FAMILY: Hylidae

GENUS: Hylidae

SPECIES: cinerea

DESCRIPTION:

About 2 inches in length. Yellowish-green to light green and sometimes pale gray with a white underside. Has a sharply defined light stripe along the upper jaw and side of the body. Sometimes the side stripe is absent. Occasionally has tiny, black-edged gold spots on the back. Like most hylids, they are slender with long limbs, webbed toes and large adhesive, suckerlike discs on the toe tips for climbing. Prefers to walk rather than jump, but can make tremendous leaps when fleeing a predator in the trees.

GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE AND HABITAT:

Delaware south along the coastal plain into Florida and the Keys, west to south Texas and north through central Arkansas and west Tennessee to Illinois. Likes trees and shrubs growing in or near permanent water, i.e. lakes, ponds, streams and swamps.

DIET:

Small insects.

LIFE CYCLE/SOCIAL STRUCTURE:

Nocturnal. During the day frequently can be found asleep on the underside of large leaves or in other moist shady places. Breeding season is March to October in southern areas, April to September in northern areas. Eggs are laid in water.

SPECIAL ADAPTATIONS:

Arboreal frogs are more subject to dessication than ground dwelling frogs; they are more exposed to drying air currents and less connected with moist locations. Some use a type of waterproofing secretion. The mechanism has not been adequately determined in this species, but it has adapted to retarding evaporative water loss and is conservative in using evaporation for thermoregulation.

INTERPRETIVE INFORMATION::

Has local names such as bell frog or cow-bell frog. Their calls have been likened to cow-bells or geese: “quonk, quonk” can be heard on damp evenings or after a rain. They may congregate in large choruses of several hundred.

OUR ANIMALS:

We have 7 in our collection.

STATUS IN THE WILD:

Not endangered.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Internet: eNature.
2. Palika, Liz. A Complete Idiot’s Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians. 1998. Alpha Books, New York, NY.
3. Preston-Mafham, Ken.Frogs and Toads. 1999. Chartwell Books, Edison, NJ.
4. Showler, Dave. Frogs and Toads. 2004.St.Martin’s Press, New York, NY.
5. Stebbins, Robert and Nathan Cohen. A Natural History of Amphibians. 1995. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.