Pacific Tree Frog
Hyla Regilla (also Pseudacris Regilla)
- Description:
- Pacific treefrogs can come in brown, gray, tan and other earth tones as
well as green (around Moscow Idaho, they tend to be light gray, green, or
with zones of both). Their color can lighten or darken in a few minutes.
Adults are about 1.25 to 1.5 inches long, and not really slender. The males have a noticeably darker throat, yellowish to dark brown in color.
- Habitat:
- An aquarium with about two inches of water with numerous rocks and plants they can escape into for hiding (and to get out of the water) works well although ponds are a great place to farm these critters. One reader writes:
Back when those rigid wading pools first came out, I got
one and buried it in my parents' back yard. (Unfortunately, I had to keep
replacing them, they last only about a year in full sun). Then I placed
water and native aquatic plants in it. I placed different amphibians in it
as eggs or larvae. They did quite well, but only the Pacific treefrogs
came back. Three or four males would start croaking about the time the
spring was far enough along to have nights with lows above 40 F. In early
summer froglets the size of thumbnails would start to hop about in the
grass around the pond. (This made lawn mowing a bit unnerving! Fortunately,
they could move fast enough to get out of the way.) After emerging, the
froglets probably dispersed. My mom told me she was driving home from a
late night meeting in a driving Fall rain, when she saw a small green speck
skip across the road in her headlights. It was two blocks from and was
headed away from our house. We never had insect pest problems in the yard
after the frogs took up residence.
Read more information on this subject in the Housing Your Pet Frog
section.
(see the Frog Doctor for details on illness prevention.)
- Diet:
- insects, namely, bought crickets dowsed in a vitamin supplement. They don't care much for beetles that can fight back and bite their lips.
- Habits:
- The courting males have a high pitched ribbit,
you can even hear it as the classic Hollywood "woods at night" sound
effect. Males any time of the year they are not courting or hibernating may
give a single note croak (bit, as opposed to ribbit) when the humidity is
high that may be some type of territorial call. Pacific treefrogs tend not
to climb as much or high as most treefrogs, usually not going more than two
feet up into vegetation. They tend to be more terrestrial than arboreal.
They can climb quite well if they need to though, as when a passing snake presents itself.
Information on the longevity of frogs is available in the Weird Frog Facts section.
- Miscellaneous Facts:
- They live in the West Coast forest wetlands, from Baja California on up into Canada. While they are usually thought of as coastal, they actually have a range that extends as
far east as western Montana.
The male Pacific Tree frog can be distinguished by the darker throat. All that puffing of the skin makes it get lots of friction, which causes it to get darker.
Another bit of info that might be interesting is that it is illegal to keep these animals as pets without a license - and from what one of my readers tells me, it's nearly impossible to get a license to do so. It can carry a pretty hefty fine. "I spent many hours trying to find someone in the state governemnt who could tell me how to get a license. Finally talked to someone at Fish and Wildlife who told me that no such license existed unless I was a university. Then he started to threaten me." Yikes! So, enjoy these guys in the wild, but don't bring them home!
Thanks to:
Darryl J. Hover and Rod Sprague for providing information.
A whole bunch of pictures can be found here
Back to Species Info Page.
Back to Frequently Asked Questions About Pet Frogs.
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