Splendid Leaf Frogs

-

Hiding in plain sight!


It was a cold morning today for Valentine's Day, but we had a lot of excited guests crowded around the frog exhibits! The highlight of this week's Sunday frog feeding tour, for me, was the Splendid Leaf Frogs. They really have the life! Most of them don't even wake up for their food, which is conveniently fed to them on foreceps.

Cruziohyla calcarifer, the Splendid leaf frog

Unlike many frogs, these leaf frogs grasp food in their front hands and stuff it into their mouths. This can be quite dramatic, as it was today. One of the males was hanging upside-down from a leaf while rather ungracefully stuffing a cricket in its mouth. Moments later, that same frog was fast asleep—back on its leaf.

I couldnt get a picture of that spectacle (I was busy with the foreceps) but here are some photos of these beautiful frogs—truly splendid.

Hope to see you there next time—11 am every Saturday in the conservatory lobby!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ask the frog staff: How many tadpoles actually survive into adulthood?

-
Image
Hi Mark. A frog friend and I were at the lily pond today and it was rife with tadpoles of various sizes and stages. Two questions: 1) It looked like the two ducks might be feeding on them ... do they? 2) How many tadpoles actually survive to frog adulthood? — Christine C. This particular topic has come up a lot recently, and one of our visitors beautifully photographed a heron eating a rather large bullfrog out of the lily pond in the Children's Garden . It was a graphic interaction, but demonstrates how vital amphibians are in food webs and one of the reasons we use to illustrate how important it is to keep amphibians around. Almost everything eats them, or their tadpoles, or their eggs ... or all three.  Many animals eat frogs exclusively (including some frog species!), and the herons at the Garden obviously love them. I have seen ducks eating tadpoles quite rapidly. In fact, my amphibian class last summer quantified how quickly different aquatic birds could consume ta
Read more

Amphibians and Solar Eclipses — What to Expect

-
Image
Green Tree Frogs are typically vocal during August and we may hear an increase in their breeding activity during the eclipse! Very little is known about amphibians and their response to a solar eclipse. We may even expect such a short lapse in photoperiod to be largely ignored by amphibians. One of the few reports on the subject comes from data gathered during a solar eclipse in New England in 1932. Wheeler, et al (1935) documented a lot of activity, with species such as Spring Peepers, Grey Tree Frogs and American Toads temporarily behaving as if it were night. We are encouraging our Metro Atlanta Amphibian Monitoring Program (maamp.us) participants to get out, if possible to their survey sites and record their observations during the eclipse. We would also encourage the entire Atlanta community to submit their observations of amphibians while they are out witnessing the event. Did you hear an increase in frog calling? Was there an increase in activity? Did the frogs, toads and sa
Read more

Species Highlight: Captive Breeding of Fringed Leaf Frogs

-
Image
Adult female on exhibit  Baby Fringed Leaf Frogs are so cute. These guys are growing fast! Two pairs of Cruziohyla craspedopus in amplexus The colors show up nice on the purple leaf ... Three pairs of Fringed Leaf Frogs in amplexus, and a clutch on new eggs on the leaf below the group on the right. This setup follows, as closely as possible, the suggestions of Erik Anderson.
Read more