The red-eyed tree frog is poisonous or not. The most dangerous animals in the world: poisonous tree frogs. Lighting and temperature conditions

Red-eyed tree frogs (lat. Agalychnis callidryas) - the owners of many advantages. First, they are beautiful. A delicate green body with blue stripes, bright orange legs, a yellow belly like a chicken and expressive red eyes make the red-eyed tree frog one of the most attractive amphibians in the world.

Secondly, unpretentious. All they need for a happy life is wet thickets along the banks of rivers and streams in the tropical forests of Central America and the presence of their favorite crickets, which are at the top of the list of food preferences for red-eyed tree frogs.

However, the matter is not limited to crickets alone, and tree frogs diversify their menu with everything that they can swallow - worms, moths, flies and even small frogs.

Thirdly, they are not poisonous, and the only way they can protect themselves is to use their bright colors as camouflage. Here, tree frogs have two options to choose from - hide the bright parts of the body and remain motionless, or, conversely, move as quickly as possible, shimmering in front of the predator's eyes with all the colors of the rainbow, literally overshadowing his eyes with their beauty.

In the first case, it is enough for them to climb a tree, bend their orange legs and close the blue stripes on the sides with their feet. In this position, only the upper, green part of their body remains visible, which completely merges with the lush green foliage of tropical trees.

Their small size (up to 6 centimeters in males and up to 8 centimeters in females) makes them almost invisible to snakes, spiders, bats and birds.

Red-eyed tree frogs can live both near water bodies and in trees, but prefer to lead an arboreal lifestyle, very rarely descending to the ground. The long legs of these frogs are better suited for climbing trees than for swimming, and the suction cups on each toe make it easy to move on vertical surfaces, including wet leaves and tree trunks. For their ability to make long jumps, red-eyed tree frogs were called "monkey frogs".

The red eyes of these nocturnal amphibians have vertical pupils and are equipped with a nictitating membrane that moistens them and protects them from dust. Like the body of tree frogs, these membranes are brightly colored, but this does not prevent the frogs from seeing well in the dark. Depending on the mood or environment, red-eyed tree frogs are able to slightly modify the intensity of their coloration.

The mating season for red-eyed tree frogs begins at the height of the rainy season. Sitting on a branch, the male begins to shake it vigorously, making inviting sounds. By such behavior, he pursues two goals at once - to scare off rivals and attract the attention of a partner.

When the process of fertilization begins, the female will carry the male on her back for several hours, then pick up a convenient branch with dense foliage hanging over the water and lay her eggs.

After a few days, the eggs will develop into tadpoles and fall into the water, where they will spend from three weeks to several months until they turn into adult tree frogs and move back to a safe height.

These arboreal amphibians live in Central America. Prefer rainforests near river banks. They feel very good on trees, climbing them higher from the ground.

Appearance

The length of the tree frog is 4 - 7 cm, females are larger than males. Perhaps these are the most beautiful amphibians. The bright color of the tree frog camouflages it well in the abundant foliage among the riot of colors. In addition, at night, the camouflage changes to match the surrounding nature and is not visible at all. The top is painted bright green, the sides are blue, the belly is white. Legs are long and orange.

Each finger has a disk that secretes a sticky liquid. Having such devices, she easily climbs and descends the trees. Disks like suckers keep the tree frog even on the leaves upside down. She is also an excellent jumper, easily jumping from branch to branch or leaf, covering a distance of about 1 meter.

The eyes are large, red in color with a vertical pupil. The nictitating membrane protects the eyes from dust and provides moisture. The red-eyed tree frog moves well both on firmament and in water.

Lifestyle. Nutrition

It is nocturnal and sees well in the dark. To search for food descends to the ground. The red-eyed tree frog feeds on insects. It catches them not only with a sticky tongue, but can also grab them with its front paws. This is a real hunter, very dexterous, rarely misses. During the day, she hides in the leaves, climbing to the tops of trees, and sleeps there. In drought, it sits on the underside of the leaf. During this period, they are silent, but after the rains, they actively and loudly croak.

reproduction

The mating season begins during the rainy season, which lasts from June to November. Males sit on branches above the water and sing their inviting songs. Also, intonation warns rivals that the place is occupied. The female can lay 1 - 3 clutches on the leaves of trees in one night. In one clutch there are about 40 eggs, each surrounded by a mucous membrane.

After 5 - 10 days, tadpoles appear, which fall into the water, where their further development takes place (21 - 60 days). Having taken the form of an adult, young tree frogs leave the aquatic environment and climb trees.

The red-eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas) is a tailless amphibian from the tree frog family. The species was first described by Cope in 1862. The Latin name of the species is derived from the Greek words - kallos (beautiful) and dryas (tree nymph).

The red-eyed tree frog is a small animal with large bright red eyes with vertical pupils and a nictitating membrane. The fingers are short, with thick pads, on which there are suction cups that help to move along the leaves.

The red-eyed tree frog is widespread in Central and South America (Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Belize, Colombia, Panama). It mainly lives in tropical rainforests, near water. Inhabits the upper and middle tiers of trees. During the day and during the dry season, they hide on the underside of broad leaves.

The color of these amphibians varies within the range, the main color is green, on the sides and at the base of the paws is blue with a yellow pattern, the fingers are orange. The belly is white or cream. Some individuals have small white spots on the back. Young tree frogs (in Panama) can change their color: during the day they are green, and at night they turn purple or red-brown. Juveniles have yellow eyes instead of red ones.

Size: females - 7.5 cm, males - 5.6 cm. Life expectancy: 3-5 years.

The main enemies are reptiles: snakes (eg parrot snakes Leptophis ahaetulla), lizards and turtles, birds, small mammals (including bats). Cat-eyed snakes (Leptodeira septentrionalis), wasps (Polybia rejecta), monkeys, fly larvae Hirtodrosophila batracida and others prey on eggs. Fungal infections, such as Filamentous ascomycete, affect eggs. Tadpoles are preyed upon by large arthropods, fish and water fleas.

The red-eyed tree frog is a carnivore that eats various animals that fit in its mouth - insects (beetles, flies, moths) and arachnids, lizards and frogs.

The red-eyed tree frog is nocturnal. They have parabolic vision and a good sense of touch. During the day, frogs sleep on the underside of green leaves, hiding from predators. While resting, their eyes are covered with a translucent membrane that does not prevent the frogs from seeing. If a predator attacks a red-eyed tree frog, it sharply opens its eyes and their bright red color confuses the attacker. At the moment when the predator froze, the frog runs away. When night falls, tree frogs wake up, yawn and stretch. Despite their bright frightening color, red-eyed tree frogs are not poisonous, but their skin contains a large amount of active peptides (tachykinin, bradykinin, caerulein and demorphin).

Reproduction begins with the first rains at the beginning of the wet season. Mating occurs throughout the season, but is especially frequent in June and October. At this time, males make aggressive calls to distance other males and calls to attract females. The dominant frequency of emitted sounds ranges from 1.5-2.5 kHz. Vocalization begins with the onset of twilight and is especially intensified during rain.

When the female descends to the males, then several males can jump on her at once. As soon as amplexus occurs, the female, with the male sitting on her back, descends into the water and remains there for about ten minutes in order to absorb water through the skin. After that, the female lays her eggs on the leaves (one egg each, 30-50 in total), which hang over the water. During the breeding season, a female may mate with several males and lay up to five clutches.

The total number of red-eyed tree frogs in nature is decreasing due to the destruction of habitats.

Scientific classification:
Kingdom: Animals
Type: Chordates
Class: Amphibians
Detachment: Tailless
Family: Frogs
Genus: Bright-eyed tree frogs
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With its large, bulging red eyes, this tree frog uses a defense mechanism called "fright color". When the frog closes them, its green eyelids help it blend in with the palette of green plants around it. If you approach a nocturnal frog during daytime sleep, it suddenly opens its eyes, which immediately discourages the predator, providing itself with a few seconds in order to escape. So big red eyes are by no means a tribute to fashion.

To emphasize the color of their eyes, these red-eyed frogs are bright green, sometimes with a yellow or blue tint. Depending on the mood, the red-eyed tree frog can change skin color, becoming dark green or reddish brown. The belly and throat are usually white, and on the sides there is a pattern of vertical stripes of blue with a white border. The toes are bright red or orange and equipped with suckers that allow them to sleep during the day, clinging tightly to leaves in the rainforest, and at night to hunt insects and small frogs.

Females reach a size of 7.5 cm, males are slightly smaller - 5.6 cm. Like other amphibians, red-eyed tree frogs begin their lives as tadpoles in temporary or permanent reservoirs. As adult frogs, they are still dependent on water, and in order to keep their skin moist, they prefer to always be near water sources, which are abundant in tropical rainforests.

Red-eyed tree frogs can be found clinging to branches, trunks, and even under the leaves of trees, where they hide from predators. Adults live in the upper and middle tiers of tropical forests, sometimes they can be found inside bromeliads. Red-eyed tree frogs are predators, feeding mainly on insects. They prefer crickets, flies, grasshoppers and butterflies. Sometimes they do not disdain smaller relatives.

Frogs have historically always been indicators of the health of an ecosystem or its impending vulnerability. Not surprisingly, the world's frog population has declined significantly in recent years, research shows that factors including chemical pollution from pesticide use, acid rain, and mineral fertilizer use weaken the ozone layer, increasing UV exposure, and can damage fragile eggs. Although the red-eyed tree frog is not endangered, its habitat is under constant threat.

This frog is probably the most popular of all amphibian species with photographers in the world and for many is the epitome of the tropics. The red-eyed tree frog was first described by Edward Cope in 1862. Usually these tree frogs live in the area from Central America to Mexico, especially in Honduras. They are found in Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama. They live in tropical forests and move through the trees, to some extent staying closer to the ground where they hunt at night, while they are always close to water bodies. This frog is also called the Red-Eyed Tree Frog, the Red-Eyed "Monkey Frog".

Today, these tree frogs are considered a fairly common species in these areas and are not threatened.

Description and general information

Family: Tree frogs (Hylidae)
Subfamily: Phyllomedusa (Phyllomedusinae)
Origin: Central America (Southern Mexico, Panama)
Adult Length: Males 50-55mm (1.96-2.16 inches); Females 65-70 mm (2.55-2.75 inches)
Lifespan: 4-10 years in captivity
Content Difficulty: Medium
Breeding Difficulty: Medium
Activity: Strictly nocturnal
Temperatures: Daytime 26-28°C (78-82°F); Night 22-24°C (71-75°F)
Diet: Crickets, moths and other insects

Male with female, (Photo: Dr. Peter Weish)

The red-eyed tree frog is a small tree frog belonging to the tree frog family. The back is painted in a bright lime green color during the day, but becomes darker with the onset of night, the abdomen is usually white or cream. Some individual individuals may have white spots on their backs. The eyes, as the name implies, are bright red with black vertical pupils. Paws are orange, toes with well-developed pads, partially fused, forming membranes. Specimens from the southern part of the range of this species have a blue or purple inner surface of the hind and fore legs, while individuals more northerly have an orange color instead of blue. Some individuals from the south have wide blue areas on the sides, against which there are 3-8 pale yellow thin vertical stripes; in northern specimens, the lateral regions are rather brownish-red, and the vertical stripes are darker. All the species that I met in the amphibian market came from the southern part of the range. During the day, all the bright parts of the body are hidden from view, and you can only see the green back of the tree frog - at night, when they begin to wake up, they appear before the world in all their glory. That. it is believed that frogs need bright colors in order to scare away possible predators and get a chance to hide.

Red-eyed tree frog "Photo Gorky"

At night during the rainy season, which lasts from late May to December, males singing can be heard from the vegetation, about 1-3 meters from the ground. Plants of such a plan can be found around or near quiet reservoirs, ditches, ditches, small forest lakes. Sometimes tree frogs can be heard at a height of 5 meters or more. By itself, singing can be like clucking, a dull sound on one or two notes. Cases of singing of several hundred males at the same time are registered. Outside the breeding season, they can be found in trees at a height of 10 m and above. During the day, this night frog can be seen on green leaves, making the tree frog almost invisible to the outside world.

The breeding season begins with the arrival of the rainy season. As mentioned above, the singing of males can be heard from the thickets, thus they try to attract larger females. When a pair is formed, the male climbs onto the female, grabbing the base of her front paws. Holding the male on her back, the female descends to the water, absorbing some moisture into the bladder - without this, the eggs, being laid, can dry out. After this procedure, the female climbs back to the tree or bush and selects a leaf above the pond where the eggs fertilized by the male can be laid. Pale green eggs will be in a jelly-like mass for 5-9 days before the appearance of tadpoles from them, which, after hatching, will fall into the reservoir and continue their development there. It happens that the female lays her eggs not directly above the reservoir, in which case the tadpoles are forced to use their tails to get to the reservoir. Groups of tadpoles sometimes gather near the surface of the water, at an angle of 45° on the sunny side of the reservoir. The final metamorphosis takes 7-9 weeks.

Like most frogs, these tree frogs are insectivorous, and in my experience they are more attracted to more mobile insects than amorphous creatures such as caterpillars. It is believed that they can eat smaller frogs, but this has not yet been proven. But the tree frogs themselves often become victims of bats, birds, snakes (for example, Leptodeira willingly eat tree frog eggs).