Cool Facts About The Grey Treefrog

• Called Hyla versicolor in Latin, these small arboreal frogs have the ability to camouflage itself by shifting colors from grey to green and vice versa

• To be certain you’ve spotted a Grey Treefrog you need to take a look at their hind legs. What are you looking for? Bright-yellow patches on the inside of their legs, which they use to confuse any potential predators

• Once winter rolls around the Grey Treefrog hides beneath logs, leaves and dirt to stay warm. They produce an anti-freeze like gel that prevents freezing called glycerol, so even though 40% of their bodies freezes, they keep on kicking

The Life of a Small Arboreal Frog

As you may have figured, by being arboreal, the Grey Treefrog lives most of its life way up in the trees; however, when it comes time for mating, they will saunter down from the trees and head to the water below. If you are planning to observe these interesting little treefrogs, you will want to head over to the eastern United States or southeastern Canada. Of course, they live in forested areas where there is a permanent source of water near by. During summertime they head for the moist environments while in winter they hibernate underground.

Oh and if you visit in the summer, you will need to plan a night trip as this wonderful amphibian is nocturnal, meaning that it’s working on late night shifts hunting down small insects, spiders, snails and mites. The Grey Treefrog can be recognized by its particular shrills that can last up to a second and repeat every 3-4 seconds in a very drummer-like manner.  I guess even the Grey Treefrog dreams of being a rockstar.

A Master of Camouflage

These small but intelligent frogs have developed their own method for  staying away from dangerous predators, which include skunks, opossums, raccoons, and sneaky snakes. Still, we’re not talking about just any frog here, but the mighty Grey Treefrog, an amphibian that has managed to shift colours from grey to green and even almost black in order to camouflage themselves and stay safe.

In other words, the Grey Treefrog has the ability to make themselves practically invisible. This is a good thing too, since they are only between 3.18 cm (1.25″) and 5.22 cm (2″) in length so you had better have a special skill developed in order to get by.