Red Eyed Leaf Frogs Essay

Red-Eyed Leaf Frog The Red-Eyed Leaf Frog or the Red-Eyed Tree Frog (Agalychnis callidryas) is a medium sized frog that has, as its name implies, brilliantly colored red-eyes. Its body is a lime green, its webbed feet are orange, and it has bright blue and orange flanks. They sleep during the day on leaf bottoms with their legs tucked closely in to hide its bright colors. When disturbed, they use a technique called startle coloration by flashing their bright eyes and flanks, confusing their predators long enough for the leaf frogs to make their getaway. Despite their bright coloring, red-eyed leaf frogs are not venomous (“Red-Eyed Tree Frogs”). These frogs prefer to live in humid forests. As such, they are mostly found in tropical lowlands ranging from southern Mexico and northern South America. Red-eyed tree frogs are found throughout Central America. Countries that have red-eyed leaf frogs include Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama. Within the lowland rainforests, the frogs are commonly found in areas close to rivers. In Nicaragua and Costa Rica near the Caribbean, some populations of tree frogs are found with a continuous yellowish stripe separating the blue

Since the frogs are nocturnally active, the male mating sounds are most common during the evenings. These frogs breed during the wet season (late May to November). Mating occurs throughout the wet season, but is most common during June and occasionally October. The male frog will attach itself to the female’s back in order to fertilize her eggs using a process known as amplexus. The group of eggs laid by the female is known as a clutch. In between laying a clutch, the female (with the male still attached) must enter the water to fill her bladder to prevent her eggs from drying up and dying (Boman, Holland