The Tree Frogs- Don't Try This At Home

7/14/08
So I never wrote about my long night spend wading through the swamp looking for mating tree frogs. It's actually been well over a week now but it was quite an experience, although not for the faint of heart. One does wear rubber boots on this type of venture, but when wading in crotch high swamp water these boots are of small comfort only. Ryan, a new La Selva friend of mine who is studying the feeding habits of toucans, & I had got to be quite good at spotting the tree frogs in El Suampo (as we like to call it, truth be told this is also where some of the crew's drinking & mild trash talking takes place). So when offered the opportunity to tag along & perhaps even help on some research regarding these cool little creatures I jumped at the chance. The recent spotting of a Fer-de-Lance in this new (to me) swamp wasn't really mentioned until the water had hit my thighs, & only one researcher had actually had a leech attach itself- oh well, well worth it just for story value if nothing else!

So the Red Eyed tree frog evidently comes down from the trees to breed & then moves higher up in the canopy again- females only once every 8 wks but males every night I believe. After breeding the male rides the females back on trips down to the water where she fills her bladder in order to moisten the eggs- muy interesante!

So these hardy researching souls were only interested in the matched pairs , we found one pair + another female who was ready to be bred in the lab (none were harmed in this experiment) & I survived to tell the tale!