Spot the canyon tree frogs!

January 3, 2015 • 4:26 pm

by Matthew Cobb

This picture was taken by @NashTurley and posted on Tw*tter about an hour ago. I can see eight tree frogs. How about you?

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Nash kindly mailed me the his-res version of the phot and added:

I found these along a river in Sabino Canyon just North of Tucson, AZ. It’s a beautiful oasis in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. Walking around the river rocks we slowly noticed we were surrounded by these amazingly well camouflaged frogs. They normally would not hop away when approached, just stuck to the rocks.  Overhead I saw a common black hawk soaring. They feed along streams and rivers for lizards, frogs, and invertebrates. Perhaps a selection pressure driving evolution of camouflage??? 🙂 I assume the ID I got on twitter is correct, canyon tree frog (Hyla arenicolor).
He also sent another picture of one of these beauties:
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Nash has a website where he posts some of his photos, which include some great macro shots of arthropods. He describes himself thus:
I am a naturalist, photographer, musician, and a postdoctoral research associate at Michigan State University’s Plant Biology Department. I am passionate about observing, admiring, and understanding the beauty and complexity of organisms of all sizes. My current research with my advisors Lars Brudvig and John Orrock focuses on understanding how land use history, restoration practices, and a range of biotic and abiotic factors shape longleaf pine savanna plant communities.

 

 

25 thoughts on “Spot the canyon tree frogs!”

      1. That kind is easy to spot!! In some museum or stately home in Britain I remember seeing a whole collection of those things, made by famous porcelain makers.

        1. I was startled for a moment till I realised its function is NOT the same as the utensil I linked to.

          A knight jar, indeed.

  5. Always so much fun to run into an anuran in such an arid spot. This one is much like our Gray Tree Frog, Hyla versicolor, down to the yellow flash colors.

    We often find H. versicolor sitting on
    our top deck railing in the heat of the summer, where one would think they would desiccate in short order; perhaps they always wanted to be lizards.

  7. Very nice. And the yellow highlights on the sides say ‘do not touch’. At least this is the message from our local tree frog. If you handle one then touch any delicate area like your eyes, you soon regret it with several minutes of burning pain.

  11. Snake and tree-frog here. Litoria caerulea eating Furina ornata, or possibly (the article suggests but I don’t think likely) Pseudonaja modesta.
    I was reminded of F. ornata (aka Moon Snake) by the Olive Python post the other day where Greg M pasted in the drawing of a Mamba skull (originally drawn by Groombridge for Parker & Grandison 1977). Mambas have the maxillae extremely extended anterior to the prefrontals, putting the fangs almost at the tip of the snout and making them highly erectile, useful for snagging birds and chameleons on the outer branches of trees. Furina are smallish, nocturnal and terrestrial skink-eaters (not dangerously venomous to humans or, probably, frogs), so ecologically very far from mamba-like, but F. ornata (not the other species) has the maxilla modified in a very mamba-like way. Someone should publish that!

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