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About Tree Frogs

Blanchard’s Cricket Treefrog: The Aqua Lover

The Blanchard’s cricket tree frog is the most aquatic of all tree frogs and get their name from their call, which sounds like that of a cricket.

Also known as the North American frog, and widely distributed in parts of the United States, this tiny tree frog has long since disappeared from the Canadian mainland, living only on Pelee Island, in Ontario.

Facts of Blanchard’s Cricket Tree Frog

Accredited with the binomial name of Acris Blanchardi, this tree frog makes a call during the breeding season that actually sounds like metallic clicks in succession. Some compare it to the sound generated when two stones or marbles are stuck together. Read on for more facts about the Blanchard’s cricket tree frog:
 

• They do not grow larger than 4cm, look rough, and have a brown, tan, gray, or sometimes even greenish-brown coloured moist and uneven skin. They have reddish, black, or bright green blotches or stripes down their backs. They have long hind legs with horizontal stripes and are capable of making the longest frog jumps!
   
• These tree frogs have small toe pads, which do not make them good climbers. However, what distinctly distinguishes them from the other tree frogs is the mark on their head of a dark triangle, situated between their eyes.
   
• They exist where there is water, as found in abandoned ditches, drainage quarries, the open edges of permanent ponds, slow-moving small streams or natural marshes. They live in these environments for the duration of their lives, which extends to two years at the most.
   
• Males have a distinct appearance with a dark throat and yellow vocal pouch. Breeding takes place by mid-summer when the female lays about 400 eggs. These hatch in a few days to become the tadpoles that metamorphose into frogs in about 2 months.
   
• This cricket tree frog would love to have a cricket as its meal, as well as other small insects and invertebrates.
   
• Like all other northern tree frogs, Blanchard’s cricket tree frog can endure severe winters, hiding under logs or rocks.
   

The population of Blanchard’s cricket tree frog is on the decline everywhere, and the probable reason is the degradation and loss of their habitats. The destruction of wetlands, excessive pollution with chemicals, use of insecticides, and introduction of non-native fishes in lakes and ponds have contributed to its present endangered status.