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.