The tree frog as its name states spends most of its time in the trees and only comes to the ground to breed and spawn. The term arboreal means tree dwelling.
As many of the species of tree frog have little defence against their predators (bats, spiders snakes and birds) tree frogs have adapted green colourations on their back.
Like the red eyed tree frog, during the day it lays dormant, covering up its amazing bright colours under its legs. Closes its bright red eyes with its green shaded eyelids to ensure that it is not seen. If this does not work it tries to mimic a poisonous mammal and shows its vivid purple and red in a last ditched effort to not get eaten. Although it has been suggested that bright colours function as sexual signals. This particular hypothesis is still up for debate.
Tree frogs can actually change its colour to a remarkable extent. So much so that if on a leaf it will be green but when on bark can change its colour to brownish grey. This is the importance the tree frog places on not being seen during the day. Because if they are discovered it is likely they will die.
The structure of the tree frog needs to be able to be carried by all kinds of branches and twigs. Unlike the ground aquatic frog or toad, the tree frog has to be able to efficiently move from branch to branch. However not all "tree frogs" are not necessarily forest dwellers. The closest that the European tree frog will get to a rainforest would likely be a sunny forest edge.
The European tree frog will more likely be seen in such places as wet gardens camping areas and parks with wetland areas nearby. This very reason is why the European tree frog is reasonable well known as they are frequently within human contact.
Crickets are the most commonly talked about foods that the tree frog eats but being carnivorous tree frogs have a wide food range to choose from. This is dependent on where they live and the particular species as to what is on offer. Frogs are known as opportunistic hunters and are not known to actively seek out prey rather sit in a good position and wait for insects to pass. Common foods are moth's flies crickets and any other species of insects that it knows are not poisonous.
The greatest threat to the tree frogs survival is not necessarily pollution or though that is a problem but habitat loss and degradation of agriculture and crops.
As far as reproduction goes, the tree frog reproduces slightly differently than ground dwelling frogs and each species is different. If we were talking about the red eyed tree frog specifically what happens is the male attracts the females with a call and then the female carries him on her back for a few hours. Instead of laying eggs directly within the water the red eyed tree frog lays its eggs on a leaf above the pond so that the tadpoles can hatch and drop into the water below.
The often dangerous life of the frog starts off even harder as the tadpoles are predated on by dragonflies, water beetles and fish amongst other things.
The transition period between the tadpoles to frog stage is the most stressful in the frogs life cycle. A lot of frogs are susceptible to predation or death here when the frog is consuming its own tail as the frog moves out of the water into an arboreal life.
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