Frog Blog

Yesterday as I was getting ready to sit down and rest a bit after pulling vines in the yard, I discovered my seat had already been taken. I make it a habit to check to see what I am sitting on. (Once it was a rattlesnake, but that's another story!) On the inside where the leg meets the chair seat, was a large Treefrog.  It took some doing to convince him that I did not want to share the chair and that he needed to rest elsewhere. I took his portrait and then B took him to a spot by the faucet away from the deck.

He was  bigger than your everyday Treefrog and when we tried to ID him, we were not able to conclusively do so. Thanks to the marvels of Google, we found the UF Wildlife Extension Florida frogs page:

http://www.wec.ufl.edu/extension/wildlife_info/frogstoads/image_index.php

This information was still inconclusive, but made us wonder about whether it might be the dreaded Cuban Treefrog: that invasive exotic species that may well end most of our variety of herps and some reptiles, as it is, apparently, the velociraptor of the frogs, eating everything --and lots of it. The map showing how widely it has spread in Florida, did not show the panhandle but that does not mean it could not be here. On the web pages, there is an email address for a frog specialist. He promptly responded last night that it is a native Squirrel Treefrog, that can be found in a variety of colors and patterns. The specialist wrote that he believes it is only a matter of time before Cuban Treefrogs are here and that we should stay alert for them. We have so many different kinds of frogs, toads and lizards around our place.  I would hate to have only one kind. Se habla frog?