Australian Red Eyed Tree Frog
Appearance
The Australian red-eyed tree frog is coloured bright green on the back with a light yellow underside. Along the thigh is a streak of purple. Some have been found with light coloured spots on their back.
Their toes end with pads. The front feet are three quarters webbed and the back legs are fully webbed.
The eyes are orange at the centre moving to red on the outside. They have the ability to change their skin colour to match the environment they’re in.
This species will reach lengths of up to 68mm (2.7in) long. Females are slightly larger than males.
Diet
The Australian red-eyed tree frog is insectivorous. They feed upon insects.
Range
Australia is the native home of the Australian red-eyed tree frog. Here they can be found down the east coast from the middle of Queensland down to Sydney in New South Wales.
Scientific Name
Litoria chloris
Conservation Status
Least Concern
Size
68mm (2.7in)
Lifespan
Not Available
Diet
Insectivorous
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Habitat
They make their home in the riparian zones, flooded grasslands rainforest, woodlands and wet sclerophyll forests.
Reproduction
Breeding takes place between October and February. This period follows the heavy rains in their territory which create the shallow pools necessary for them to breed.
A male will sit in one of these shallow pools and call to attract a female.
Following a successful mating the female lays her eggs in a mat on a pool of water. This is attached to some vegetation or floats to the bottom. Each clutch contains an average of 500 eggs with a female able to lay up to five clutches a year.
The tadpoles which hatch from these eggs are light brown with a gold or grey stripe and can grow up to 7.4cm (2.9in) long. The time at which they undergo Metamorphosis is determined by the temperature. At 27 degrees Celsius is takes roughly 41 days.
Sexual maturity is achieved between the 2nd and 3rd year.
Behavior
The call of the Australian red-eyed tree frog is a series of ‘waaarks’ which is followed by a trill.This species is primarily aboreal only descending from the trees to breed making them difficult to find in the wild.
Quick facts
Until recently this species was regularly confused with the northern red-eyed tree frog which looks similar but has an orange thigh instead of the purple of the Australian red-eyed tree frog.
These frogs have been used in the testing of antibiotic peptides and water loss through evaporation.
Photo Credits:
Top
By LiquidGhoul edited by Muhammad (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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By en:user:Tnarg 12345 (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
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