a refuge for tiny baby tree frogs
In 2023, I managed to keep the juvenile green frogs (L. clamitans) out of the breeding tanks, and so the tree frogs (H. chrysoscelis) were able to reproduce without interference.
There was an eight-week drought in April and May, and so I suspected the year might be a disaster for wildlife, but when the rains came in June, the tree frogs started spawning and spawned most nights into July.
Continue reading “Tree Frog Tadpoles 2023”
This is a young adult Green Frog. It is much smaller than the old blue-faced males in the ponds, but it is still an adult and reproductively active, capable of laying a clutch of several hundred eggs in a night:
Cope’s Gray Tree Frog (Hyla chrysoscelis) apparently lays larger clutches than I have seen in the past.
Previously, all the clutches I observed were smaller and broken up into different clumps separated by floating vegetation.
I speculated that was because the mating parents were avoiding the larger Green Frogs.
I’m not sure why the eggs in tank #4 are so numerous and all clumped in one area the same way the clutches of Green Frog eggs have been.
I certainly hope this isn’t because this is the first clutch laid where the parents weren’t pursued.
Note that these eggs were laid within the past 12 hours and the yolk is still spherical. Within 24 hours the yolks will become flattened embryos.
Continue reading “Frog Eggs: Cope’s Gray Tree Frog (Hyla chrysoscelis)”
At the bottom of this post are two videos of tadpoles of the Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans) swimming in experiment tank #6. One video is from June 27, 2022, and the second is from June 30.
Juvenile Green Frogs have laid several clutches of eggs in all eight experiment tanks. Cope’s Gray Tree Frogs (Hyla chrysoscelis) have also laid several clutches of eggs in every tank as far as I can tell.
Continue reading “Videos of Tadpoles Swimming in Experiment Tank #6”
The tadpoles shown here are Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans) in tank 6. As of tonight, all eight experiment tanks have many tadpoles and eggs, with the past week seeing many clutches of eggs being laid by Cope’s Gray Tree Frogs (Hyla chrysoscelis).