Amphibians

Barking Tree Frog (Hyla gratiosa)

Appearance: Small and uniformly bumpy. Color varies from brown to green to gray. Many have round dark spots with black borders evenly spaced on their backs. Males tend to be more colorful.

Size: 2 to 2.75 inches in length

Lifespan: Life expectancy is approximately 7 years, 8 to 10 years in captivity.

Habitat: Swampy areas and found in trees and tree tops when it is moist. Additionally, when the environment is dry they will work to bury themselves.

Diet: These frogs are very broad minded when it comes to their food habits and will eat anything that moves or that can fit into their mouths. Small insects like crickets, fruit flies, wax worms, insect larvae and the like form the bulk of the Barking Tree Frog's diet. They like their food live.

Reproduction: March to August; lays eggs singly on the bottom of the pond. Breeding call is a hollow tonk, tonk; a chorus of frogs sounds like distant barking dogs.

Behaviors: The barking tree frog is known for its loud, strident, barking call. It may also utter a repetitive single-syllable mating call. It has been known to chorus with other frogs of the same and similar species.

Cuban Tree Frog (Osteopilus septentrionalis)

Appearance: Recognizable for their large toe pads.

Size: 1 to 6 inches in length

Lifespan: 5 to 10 years

Habitat: Swampy areas. Indigenous to Cuba, the Bahamas, including San Salvador and Acklins Island, and the Cayman Islands.

Diet: They prey on native frogs, small lizards, and small snakes.

Reproduction: They mate all year round. Mating season reaches climax during the wet periods of the year, from May to October. Female lays around 3900 eggs in the water. After 30 hours, tadpoles will emerge from the eggs.

Dangers: They secrete a noxious chemical that can cause burning in the eyes and nose of humans and pets; this reaction may be more severe for people with asthma.

Behavior: The voice, or call, of the Cuban tree frog is variably pitched, slightly rasping or like grating stone. Male frogs call in hopes of attracting a female.

Gopher Frog (Lithobates capito)

Appearence: They resemble more like a toad then a frog with their shorther legs, warty skin, and plumper frame.

Size: Usually 2.5 to 3.5 inches (max. 4.25 inches)

Lifespan: 4 to 5 years

Habitat: Around Gopher Tortoise holes, and southeastern states.

Diet: Adults primarily consume invertebrates. Beetles, crickets and flies are important components of the diet; but gopher frogs are very aggressive predators that will consume any invertebrate that they can physically handle.

Reproduction: The males will use mating calls, which sounds like a deep snore, to attract females. Females lay one cluster of eggs per breeding season containing thousands of eggs. Eggs hatch in about four to five days, and the tadpoles live in the ponds for three to seven months until they transform into frogs.

Greenhouse Frog (Eleutherodactylus planirostris)

Appearence: Their bodies are usually green in shades ranging from bright yellowish-olive to lime green. The color can change depending on lighting or temperature. Small patches of gold or white may occur on the skin, and they may also have white, pale yellow, or cream-colored lines running from their jaws or upper lips to their groins. They have smooth skin and large toe pads. Their abdomens are pale yellow to white. Males have wrinkled throats (indicating the vocal pouch) and are slightly smaller than females.

Size: The frog is green, medium-sized, and up to 2.4 inches long.

Lifespan: Not Known

Habitat: Swampy areas. Native to the Carribean. They are a ground dwelling species that uses its mottled coloration to hide in dirt.

Diet: American greenhouse frogs are insectivores, usually consuming flies, mosquitoes, and other small insects such as crickets

Reproduction: The greenhouse frog is unusual in that its eggs are not laid in water or in a frothy mass as is the case in some tree frogs. Instead, the eggs are enclosed in a thick membrane and laid singly in concealed, damp locations, such as beneath a log, buried in debris, or even under a flower pot. Clutch sizes vary between three and 26 eggs in Florida.

Southern Leopard Frog (Rana sphenocephala)

Appearence: Its color varies from tan to several shades of brown to green. The dorsum (back) is usually covered with irregular dark brown spots between distinct light colored areas. Large dark spots on its legs may create the effect of bands.

Size: 2 to 4 inches in size

Lifespan: Approx. 3 years

Habitat: They are found throughout the Southeast, including all of Georgia and South Carolina. They breed in virtually any shallow freshwater habitat, particularly wetlands that do not have fish and can also be found in slightly brackish water

Diet:They feed primarily on insects, crayfish and other invertebrates. They forage in upland areas during the summer. In other parts of their range, their diet consists mainly of spiders, beetles, and gastropods like snails.

Reproduction: The larva is mottled, and the eyes are positioned on the top of the head. It grows to three inches in length before maturing. The female lays an egg mass that is "baseball-sized" when close to hatching time, and contains up to 1500 eggs

Fun Facts: Southern leopard frogs are vocal and tactile in nature. They use their harsh guttural call sound to communicate. This call is mainly used by males to search for their mates during the breeding period.

Southern Cricket Frog (Acis gryllus)

Appearance: Southern cricket frogs have more rounded snouts, and have two dark stripes down the backs of their thighs, rather than the one stripe found on the Northern cricket frog.

Size: They can be between 0.5 and 1.25 inches, with females growing slightly longer than males.

Lifespan: Less then One Year

Habitat: Southern cricket frogs are found in the southeastern United States, from Virginia down to Florida and east to Louisiana. Although it’s a member of the tree frog family, the southern cricket frog is a ground-dwelling species that’s found in areas with shallow bodies of freshwater. Ponds, creeks, wetlands, and even roadside ditches are suitable habitats. The frog’s jumping abilities help them to avoid predators such as salamanders, snakes, turtles, and wading birds.

Diet: Adult southern cricket frogs are insectivorous and eat mostly mosquitoes. They attempt to catch prey by jumping forward and reaching with their tongues, sometimes even chasing after prey. In the tadpole stage, cricket frogs feed on plants.

Reproduction: To attract females and ward off other males, a male frog emits a call that sounds like marbles clicking together. Their breeding season runs from February through October, but males continue to call throughout the year. Eggs are laid in freshwater and the tadpoles mature into adults after 90 to 100 days. Many of the tadpoles don’t survive into adulthood, but those that do usually live for at least a year.

Conservation: Though they have cricket-like jumping abilities, these frogs actually take their name from the cricket-like call they use to attract mates and keep away other males.

Fun Fact: Though they have cricket-like jumping abilities, these frogs actually take their name from the cricket-like call they use to attract mates and keep away other males.

Southern Toad (Bufo terrestris)

Appearance: The southern toad is a medium-sized, plump species with a snout-to-vent length of up to 3.6 inches with females being slightly larger than males. The most obvious distinguishing feature is the knobs on the head and the backward-pointing spurs that extends as far as the paratoid glands.

Size: 1.75 to 4.5 inches

Lifespan: At least 10 years

Habitat: The southern toad is found on the coastal plain of the southeastern United States. Its range extends from southern Virginia to Florida and Louisiana and there are two isolated populations on the Piedmont plateau and the Blue Ridge Mountains in South Carolina.

Diet: As incectivores they will eat crickets, roaches, snails and other invertebrates

Reproduction: Breed is from February through October, during which times males will congregate at a water source, often times a wetland, pond or ephemeral pool, and chorus to attract females. Females, drawn to the music will select males to mate with and lay 2500-4000 eggs in long gelatinous strands that are externally fertilized by the male. After about 2-4 days of floating among the vegetation, eggs hatch into tadpoles, which will make the leap onto land 30-55 days after hatching, at a size of about half an inch. These toadlets can be seen by the hundreds around wetlands and pools,seeking out a good spot to rest and begin their adult lives. They won’t return to the breeding pond again until they reach sexual maturity at 2-3 years.

Squirrel Treefrog (Hyla squirella)

Appearence: Body is tan, green, gray, or brown, and may be marked with splotches; skin is smooth. Upper lip is often yellowish on bright green individuals. Sides may be marked with broken, whitish stripes. Like other treefrogs, this species has enlarged, sticky toepads. Squirrel Treefrogs are often distinguished from other similar species by process of elimination.

Size: Between 1 - 1.5 inches

Lifespan: Less then 3 years

Habitat: Found throughout Florida and in the Keys on buildings and in shrubs and trees in urbanized and natural areas, including hardwood hammocks, bottomland and floodplain forests and swamps, pine-oak forests, and pine flatwoods. Overwinters in groups under loose bark and in tree holes. Breeds in shallow, temporary pools of water that lack fish, including marshes, wet flatwoods, and flooded ditches; prefers open wetlands.

Diet: Insects

Reproduction: March to August; lays eggs singly or in pairs on the substrate or attached to vegetation. Call is raspy and somewhat duck-like.