Green Tree Frog

This little green tree frog was watching us through the window on a coolish winters evening, he does look like he wants to join us on the inside, doesn’t he.  Really though the light inside attracts small insects so he can sit there and have his supper come to him with very little effort on his part.

This little guy is about average size for these native frogs that are commonly found across the northeast of Australia and down into the top of New South Wales.  The females grow up to 10-12cm and are noticeably larger than the males.  I’ll pop in a second photo below of a male and female we had to relocate when we found them ‘misbehaving’ under the BBQ for size comparison.  They aren’t toxic, the gloves are to protect them from anything on our hands that could harm them as they take in oxygen through their skin so they’re susceptible to poisons and bacteria.

The one in the top photo is a male, the easy way to tell from this angle is the discoloured and wrinkled vocal sack under the throat, on the female it’s white and smoother.  Using that vocal sack they can make a noise that’s disproportionate to their small size.  They’re especially noisy during the breeding season from November to February and they love the sound of their own voice, they often find somewhere that echo’s to make them even louder, they can spend all night singing in a down-pipe.

In case you are concerned these two were perfectly fine, they were calm and quiet while they were moved, if they’re threatened they make an alarm call.  They wandered off in no particular hurry when released.

So what do you think of our green tree frog?  Adorable?  Maybe you prefer some of our other local Australian Wildlife.  Let me know in the comments below what your favourite Australian animals are, we even have some that don’t bite and sting.