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Red-Eyed Tree Frog

Common Name: Red-Eyed Tree Frog Scientific Name: Agalychnis callidryas Average Life Span In The Wild: 5 years Size relative to a teacup: IUCN Red List Status:? Least concern

Least Concern Extinct

Current Population Trend: Decreasing

Many scientists believe the red-eyed tree frog developed its vivid scarlet peepers to shock predators into at least briefly questioning their meal choice.

Colorful Adaptations

These iconic rain-forest amphibians sleep by day stuck to leaf-bottoms with their eyes closed and body markings covered. When disturbed, they flash their bulging red eyes and reveal their huge, webbed orange feet and bright blue-and-yellow flanks. This technique, called startle coloration, may give a bird or snake pause, offering a precious instant for the frog to spring to safety.

Their neon-green bodies may play a similar role in thwarting predators. Many of the animals that eat red-eyed tree frogs are nocturnal hunters that use keen eyesight to find prey. The shocking colors of this frog may over-stimulate a predator's eyes, creating a confusing ghost image that remains behind as the frog jumps away.

Range and Habitat

Red-eyed tree frogs, despite their conspicuous coloration, are not venomous. They are found in tropical lowlands from southern Mexico, throughout Central America, and in northern South America. Nocturnal carnivores, they hide in the rain forest canopy and ambush crickets, flies, and moths with their long, sticky tongues.

Red-eyed tree frogs are not endangered. But their habitat is shrinking at an alarming rate, and their highly recognizable image is often used to promote the cause of saving the world's rain forests.

Green-Eyed Tree Frog

Common Name: Green-Eyed Tree Frog Scientific Name: Litoria genimaculata Size relative to a teacup: IUCN Red List Status:? Least concern

Least Concern Extinct

Current Population Trend: Decreasing

The green-eyed tree frog has adapted its appearance to blend in with the moss-covered rain forests of Queensland, Australia.

Coloring

The frogs' coloration and markings vary with their specific habitat, but they usually have a brownish-green body with rust-colored blotches that match the lichen-covered rocks lining the creeks and streams they tend to live near.

This species gets its name not for green eyes per se, but rather for a line of brilliant green that often adorns the brow of each eye. They are also distinguishable by a row of skin flaps along their arms and legs, which resembles a serrated knife.

Size

Females, which are significantly larger than males, grow to about 2.8 inches. Males, which emit a mating call that sounds like a quiet tap-tap-tap, max out at about 1.8 inches.

Population

Green-eyed tree frogs are abundant in the rugged wet tropics of northeast Queensland, near the Great Barrier Reef. Their population is healthy in the region's lower elevations, but, for unknown reasons, may have disappeared completely from the higher-altitude areas. They have suffered serious declines in the past, possibly due to a fungus or virus, but their numbers have rebounded, and they are not currently threatened or endangered.

SAVING THE CALIFORNIA RED-LEGGED FROG

Experts agree: Mark Twain's favorite amphibian, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," is none other than the California red-legged frog. Once so common it was a staple cuisine, California's largest native frog has now lost 90 percent of its historic population. Thanks to Center litigation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated more than 4.1 million acres of critical habitat in 2001, but a building-industry lawsuit caused the agency to withdraw that decision — and even after Center intervention and a federal proposal to re-designate the original acreage, the Service protected only 450,288 acres. This decision, occurring through the influence of former Interior Department official Julie MacDonald, was based on a biased economic analysis and ignored scientific evidence of the species' needs.

In August 2007, the Center warned we would sue over this decision and 54 other tainted endangered species rulings. Three months later, the Service announced the reversal of six rulings, including the one slashing habitat for the frog. In December 2007, we sued to ensure that the frog's new critical habitat designation was adequate, and in 2010, the Service nearly quadrupled the designation to 1.6 million acres.

Unfortunately, the frog's habitat has also been contaminated by pesticides — to which amphibians, with their permeable skin, are highly vulnerable. The Center filed a 2002 lawsuit forcing the Environmental Protection Agency to consult with endangered species experts at the Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure that chemicals they register won't harm the red-legged frog. In 2006, we reached a settlement agreement that prohibits the use of 66 toxic pesticides in and near core California red-legged frog habitats until formal consultations with the Service have been completed. When the EPA and Fish and Wildlife Service failed to follow through, in 2011 we took both agencies back to court. In 2013, a federal district court approved a settlement requiring the Service to better protect California red-legged frogs from seven common pesticides known to be highly toxic to amphibians. The settlement gives the agency two years to prepare "biological opinions" under the Endangered Species Act to analyze pesticide use in and near the frog's aquatic and upland habitats.

In 2001, the Center submitted a comprehensive, scientifically based conservation plan for Southern California's four national forests that would protect red-legged frog habitat, and we're still challenging the Forest Service's frog-harming management plans for these forests. We've also opposed numerous urban-sprawl projects in the San Francisco Bay Area to ensure that red-legged frogs aren't squeezed out by golf courses and luxury condos.

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