Wonders of Wildlife: Green Tree Frog

Green Tree Frog

Other Common Names: Rain Frog, Cowbell Frog

Scientific Name: Hyla cinerea

Found in Alabama: Common statewide

Diet: Herbivore (eats plants) as tadpoles
Carnivore (eats animals) as adults

Green Tree Frog

flickr – Judy Gallagher

Learn More About...

Classification

IDENTIFICATION

Adaptations

Life Cycle

Habitat Needs

Ecological Role

CLASSIFICATION

Scientists use basic traits to
group animals into different taxonomic
classes.

For a taxonomic classification chart comparing key traits of common backyard wildlife,
CLICK HERE!

What type of animal am I?

I am a vertebrate (an animal with a spine or backbone).
I am cold-blooded, so I cannot control my body temperature.
I do not have scales, feathers, or fur, so I have smooth skin.
When I am a larva (tadpole), I breathe using gills, and when I am an adult frog, I breathe using lungs.
I have 4 legs.

The Green Tree Frog is an AMPHIBIAN!

IDENTIFICATION TIPS

ADULT GREEN TREE FROG

Range from 1.25 inches to 2.5 inches long
Most are bright green in color, but some may appear more yellowish or green-gray with light cream color on the underside
Cream-colored or yellow stripe runs along the sides of the body from behind the mouth to the thigh
Sometimes have small yellowish spots on the back
Have slender bodies with smooth skin
Long limbs, long fingers, and sticky discs at tips of fingers

Green Tree Frog
Wikimedia – Fredlyfish4

EGGS

Soft-shelled eggs arranged in
clusters attached to aquatic vegetation

Cope’s Gray Tree Frog Eggs
Jeff Pippen

TADPOLES (Larvae)

Range from 4.5-5.5 mm and grow until they are around 60 mm

Green Tree Frog Tadpole
Wikimedia – Fredlyfish4

FROGLETS

As small as a tadpole up to
as large as an adult; still has a tail but lives on land

Green Tree Frog Froglet
Dreamstime

PHYSICAL AND BEHAVIORAL ADAPTATIONS

PHYSICAL ADAPTATIONS

Green Tree frogs avoid predators:

To avoid predators (animals that eat them), green tree frogs rely on camouflage (blending in with the surrounding environment).
Their green body coloration allows them to easily blend in with surrounding plants.
They are especially difficult to detect when they sit with their limbs tucked underneath their body and close their eyes.

Green Tree Frog Camouflage and Toe Pads
Dreamstime

Green tree frogs have specialized adaptations for hearing:

Frogs do not have ears like humans’ ears. We have flexible (bendable), external ears on the outside of our head, and then down inside our ear we have eardrums (tympanums) that collects sound. (CLICK HERE for more details.)
Frogs do not have external ears like ours, but you can see their tympanum (eardrum) as it is the round, circular shape on both sides of their head which allows them to hear.
Frog calls are relatively loud, so their eardrums are connected to their lungs which protects their eardrums from becoming damaged by the sound.
Different types of frogs have calls that sound different from one another. The size and distance between eardrums is also different based on characteristics of the call.

Green Tree Frog Typanum
Flickr – Cotinis

Green tree frogs have specialized toes:

Green tree frogs are adapted for climbing rather than jumping.
The tips of their fingers are disk-shaped and produce a sticky substance.
The finger tips are extremely flexible and provide a firm grip due to reduced cartilage and bone between them.
These physical adaptations allow them to move vertically (up and down) along smooth bark, metal, and glass.

Green tree frogs have tongues that help them capture prey:

The tongue of a Cope’s gray tree frog is long and is attached at the front of the mouth, allowing it to launch as far as possible to capture prey (animals they eat).
Frog tongues are made of extremely soft tissues, giving them the ability to hold on to the prey.
Their tongues are not “sticky” like a piece of tape. Instead, their saliva is able to convert back and forth between a liquid watery texture and a thick, sticky texture.
When a frog is at rest, the saliva is watery and not sticky. As a frog sticks out its tongue to capture prey (animal that it eats), the liquid saliva that surrounds the animal becomes thicker and stickier, trapping the animal.
Once the animal is inside the frog’s mouth, the frog uses its eyes to push against the food item to help release it from the tongue, allowing the frog to swallow its food.

Cope’s gray tree frogs have teeth to hold their prey in their mouths:

Cope’s gray tree frogs have teeth in the middle of the roof of their mouth and in the front of the top of the mouth.
They use these teeth to keep their prey (the animals they eat) from escaping while they can swallow them.

Green Tree Frog Climbing
Wikimedia – Judy Gallagher

BEHAVIORAL ADAPTATIONS

Green tree frogs are nocturnal:

They are active during the night (nocturnal).

Green tree frogs communicate with one another:

During the breeding season, from March through October, male green tree frogs sit near a small body of water and make a bell sounding honk or bark noise that females recognize.
Green tree frogs make a different sound, called an alarm call that they use to warn other green tree frogs when a predator (animal that eats them) or threat is nearby.
Green tree frogs are also known to call more loudly before rain. Because of this behavior, they are sometimes called rain frogs.

Green Tree Frog Calling
Tyler Burgener

LIFE CYCLE

Frog Life Cycle
Wikimedia – Derek Ramsey

Metamorphosis is the process of physical change that some animals go through as they transform from a larvae into an adult.

Four Life Cycle Stages of the American Bullfrog

Stage 1: Egg

Females lay around 400 soft-shelled eggs each breeding season.
Eggs are liad in in jelly-like clusters.

Stage 2: Tadpole

Baby frogs that hatch from the eggs are called tadpoles.
Once the larvae (tadpoles) emerge from the egg, they are independent.
Tadpoles live in an aquatic (water) habitat.
Tadpoles do not have legs.
They do not have lungs to breathe like we do. They have gills like fish for breathing.

Stage 3: Froglet

As a tadpole undergoes metamorphosis (physical change) from tadpole to adult, it grows hind legs and front legs as the tail begins to shorten.
The gills will reduce as the lungs begin to enlarge.
During this transition, the green tree frog goes through the froglet stage where they begin to resemble the adult but have not fully developed all of the adult features.

Stage 4: Adult

Adult green tree frogs have fully formed legs and lungs and are able to live on land.

Lifespan

The average life span of green tree frogs living in the wild is unknown.
The green tree frog is known to live up to 6 years in captivity.

Green Tree Frog Tadpole
Wikimedia – Fredlyfish4

Green Tree Frog Froglet
Dreamstime

HABITAT NEEDS

Natural Habitat Needs	Adults	Young
Food	Mainly carnivores (eats other animals). Eats active insects like flies, mosquitoes, and other small arthropods.	Primarily herbivores (eat plants). Feed on algae found in water.
Water	Prefer to live near standing or slow-moving sources of fresh water which keeps their bodies moist and hydrated.	Live in bodies of freshwater including lakes and ponds.
Shelter	Prefer to live in wet or moist habitats such as swamps, lake sides, and stream edges. They often take shelter in plants near the water’s edge. They can also be found in trees near the water.	Young are aquatic (live in the water) and will take shelter under leaf litter and debris.
Places to Raise Young	Eggs are deposited on or attached to plants in standing or slow moving sources of water.

If you want to offer resources in your backyard habitat for this species, consider the suggestions below.

Backyard Habitat Needs	Adults	Young
Food	Provide a shallow pond that will attract insects that lay their eggs in water like dragonflies. Plant grasses near water sources. Add/do not remove trees or other vegetation that supports insect populations. Do not spray pesticides that might harm insect populations. See AWF’s Frog Habitat Project Plan for a list of materials & plant suggestions.	Provide a water source such as a shallow pond that is able to support algae and aquatic vegetation (plants).
Water	Add a still or slow-moving water source such as a shallow pond.
Shelter	Plant vegetation (plants) and trees near a pond’s edge. Do not remove tree snags (standing dead trees) or logs. Provide dead tree logs if there are no naturally occuring tree snags or logs in the area.	Provide a water source such as a shallow pond with aquatic (water) plants where tadpoles can hide. Do not remove fallen logs or leaf litter from water sources. Add leaf litter or fallen logs to water sources if necessary.
Places to Raise Young	Provide a source of still water with such as a pond with aquatic (water) plantsin which females can lay their eggs.

ECOLOGICAL ROLE

Animals play an important ecological role in the health of habitats and ecosystems.

Food Source:

Adult green tree frogs provide a food source for snakes, birds, large fish, and other species of larger frogs.Tadpoles have fewer ways to defend themselves compared to adult frogs and are eaten by small fish and giant waterbugs.

Insect Population Control:

Adult green tree frogs play an important role in pest control as a result of feeding on mosquitoes and flies.

Indicator Species:

The thin skin on adult green tree frogs and other amphibians makes them vulnerable to absorbing toxic materials and pollutants present in the environment.
A decrease in population size might indicate an increase in harmful chemicals in an ecosystem.

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