Tree frogs

If we would do a survey among the owners of biological pools asking what are the most loved animals in their biological pool, the winner would be certainly the tree frog.

Tree frogs are small frogs capable climbing in vegetation. Portugal has the privilege of hosting two different species of tree frog, the Mediterranean tree frog (Hyla meridionalis) and the common tree frog (Hyla moelleri). Both species have a wide distribution in Portugal which means that at least one of the two species is guaranteed to appear next to each biological pool.

The most appropriate method of finding these little “circus artists” among amphibians is to keep an eye on the songs. The months of March and April are ideal to go looking for them on a humid or rainy night. Unlike the green frogs that sing always from the water surface, many males of tree frogs hide in vegetation near the biological pool and sing from there.The different males are trying to sing while other males are silent and thus create an antiphonic chorus.

On these concert nights the females lay their eggs next to the aquatic vegetation and a few days later the tree frog tadpoles are already living in the biological pool. They remain there until the beginning of summer when they leave the water to land. Only three years later, as adults, they do return to the water.