Page 52 - Amphibian

AT HOME IN THE TREES
These two young White’s Life in the trees
tree frogs from Australia
show the alert appearance
of tree frog species. They
have large eyes and
respond very quickly to Leaving the water and moving
fast-moving insect prey. onto dry land allowed the descendants
The fingers and toes
are very well suited of the early amphibians to colonize
for gripping and
straddling a wide range of new habitats. In
branches. one particular type of habitat,
frogs have made a remarkable
Sticky disk adaptation – they have mastered
on toe used the ability to live in trees. Some
for gripping
species spend their entire lives in the
Large topmost levels of the tree canopy high
eye above the forest floor – they even breed up
in the trees. Others (the so-called “flying”
frogs) have also taken to the air, although
they glide rather than fly. Not all tree frogs
live in trees – they also live on bushes, reeds,
sedges, grasses, and lily pads. Many distantly
Finger helps
tree frog related families of frogs have adapted
grasp similarly, but independently, to life in these
branch
habitats. One of the most important
adaptations is the development of disks,
or sticky pads, on the fingers and toes
for holding onto smooth leaf surfaces.
Some tree frogs, like the North
American cricket frogs, have
returned to life on the
ground and have lost their
adhesive disks.

Large,
Bright green color red eye
camouflage frog
in trees

NOT ALL
TREE FROGS RED-EYED
ARE GREEN Straddling
Tree frogs include walk TREE WALKER
some of the prettiest of This red-eyed tree
all the frogs and can be any frog, which stalks its
color of the rainbow, like the insect food, is a capable
marbled reed frog (pp. 22–23). climber. It is a “flying” frog
The yellow reed frog (above) from and can glide between leaves
South Africa lives among lily pads and branches in its rain forest home.
in swampy areas. Poison-dart Red-eyed tree frogs are found in
frogs (pp. 56–57) also live in tree- Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama.
frog-type habitats and have finger
and toe disks, so they may also be
thought of as tree frogs.