Taipei tree frog

The Taipei tree frog, Taipei green tree frog, or Taipei flying frog (Zhangixalus taipeianus) is a frog.  It lives in Taiwan in Taipei County.  People have seen it no higher than 1500 meters above sea level.

Appearance

The adult male frog is about  35-45 mm long from nose to rear end and the adult female frog is 45-55 mm long.  They have green skin.  They have webbed skin on all four feet.  They have large disks for climbing on all their front and back toes.  This frog can change color.  It can change from dark brown to light green.  These frogs can have yellow, blue, or white spots or other marks.  There is yellow color on the belly and legs.  The iris of the eye is yellow in color.

Home

Adult frogs live in trees.  When it is time to lay eggs, they move to rice paddies or ponds.

Young

Frogs go back to the same place to lay eggs.  The male frog digs a hole in the mud near a rice paddy or pond, sometimes underneath straw or leaves.  The male frog sits in the hole and sings for the female frogs.  Sometimes the male frogs fight each other.  The female frog then lays her eggs in the hole.  She covers them in foam.  She lays 300-400 eggs at a time.  The tadpole is gray-white in color with spots.  The tadpoles swim in the water at the bottom of the hole for about 40 days.  Then it rains, and the rain pushes the tadpoles into the rice paddy or pond.

Danger

This frog is not in danger of dying out, but there are fewer of them than there were.  This is because it lays eggs in rice paddy fields where human beings grow rice, but people in Taiwan decided to grow different foods instead. So there are fewer places for the frogs to lay eggs where tadpoles can grow.

References

Category:Frogs of Asia