>>I live deep in the woods of Ga., and I have a weird situation I want to think ahead on when winter temps arrive. There's no screen on my bathroom window, and the window stays open all the time.

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>>I have a Green Tree Frog that has adopted my bathroom as its daytime safe haven. He goes out at dusk and returns at dawn. (Cute lil guy) I even leave a small bucket of well water sitting in the tub that I change daily, and sometimes it takes a swim, lol.

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>>I'm an old herper, so he/she is welcome to hang here, but I started thinking about winter, and what will happen?

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>>Does anyone know...do they hibernate, and if they do...where? (I'm wondering if they go underground or what? It gets down to 18-30 here some winters and then warms back up for a few days). I keep this bathroom natural (no heat/no AC) whereas the rest of the house is heated/AC. Anyone know any info about non captive conditions?

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>>Told ya it was weird. :P



Does the green treefrog breed in cold weather? If it does, there is a danger that it may someday be included in the genus Pseudacris, which used to be defined as a group of secondarily terrestrial treefrogs with small discs on their fingers and toes and little to no webbing on their feet. Now, some taxnomists have expanded the genus Pseudacris by proposing a transfer of Hyla regilla, Hyla cadaverina and Hyla crucifer to Pseudacris, even though these treefrogs have well developed discs and extensive webbing. The genus Pseudacris is now defined by some as a clade of "cold weather breeding frogs." Since all of the species of Hyla in the United States are closely related to Pseudacris, we may one day see all of these species of Hyla, including Hyla cinerea and Hyla gratiosa, included in Pseudacris.



Enough silliness. The green treefrog is of course a wild animal. So, it is best to keep it from coming inside your house when fall approaches, so that it can prepare for the winter properly. It should be able to find a refuge for winter if it is a good little green treefrog. If it fails to find a suitable wintering site on its own, well then that is natural selection at work. Natural selection does not always mean survival of the fittest. Sometimes it merely means the demise of the unfit.

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