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Mediterranean Tree Frog

This pretty frog has smooth, bright skin, generally green, although there are also specimens that are brown or yellowish. A characteristic trait is the black line running from the edges of the eyes, with horizontal pupils, to the back of the eardrum. It also has suckers on the toes of its front and rear legs.

Its cryptic colouring, blending with the vegetation where it lives, is a strategy to foil predators.

Its area of distribution ranges from North Africa to southwest Europe. On the Iberian Peninsula, populations are concentrated in specific points of Andalusia, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Minorca. This species is quite generalist, living in all types of temporary and permanent bodies of water and a large variety of environments.

They primarily feed on insects as adults, while the tadpoles scratch the surfaces of aquatic plants or walls to absorb detritus, algae, etc.

To attract females during the reproductive period, the males emit their croaking songs en masse. The female lays 140 to 680 eggs in small clusters of 3 or 4, which stick to plants under the water. The tadpoles hatch after 8 to 15 days, completing metamorphosis 2 or 3 months later.

 

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Uploaded on October 10, 2016
Taken on October 8, 2016