Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is this a Copes or a Gray Tree Frog ? It was collected in southern Wisconsin and they are both found here. Also any tips on care ?

Regards,

Keith

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please do not keep wild collected animals, return it to where you found him

Thanks for the commentary but if it wasnt for wild collected animals there wouldnt be a kingsnake.com period. I dont support the collecting of just any wild animal but Gray Tree frogs are quite common here and are not in any danger. People need to focus on the true reasons for some animals declining and its not over collecting but loss of habitat. In fact this guy was found under some plywood at a construction site. I wonder how long he would have lasted with all the constructuion going on over his head.

Keith
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I think that no matter how common an animal is it is still no reason to take it from the wild. Now i give you credit for possibly saving its life from the construction site but why not just find a different location, like state park and release it. By the way Copes and grays can only be identified by call b/c copes has a faster thrill and only half as many chromosones as the common grey

I want to say and a BIG advocate of keepin wild animals wild. However... MANY amphibians in petstores are wild collected, or can't be positively linked to captive bred sources. But in the end someone is making money off of selling a living soul. I prefer to keep my money out of the hands of greedy petstore owners. Until amphibians are captive bred as widely as most reptiles in the pet industry, I will always support responsible collecting methods (ie. collect males vs females, collect young vs adult). Telling people to simply put it back doesn't solve anything.
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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

Responsibly keeping WC animals isn't always horrible. I am in the exact same boat here. My friends just gave me a little WC grey tree frog from northern MN. He's tiny, about 3/8 of an inch.

Now, we do plan on releasing it, but until we can go back to where he was collected, I need some captive husbandry info.

I believe responsible collecting, keeping (and possibly breeding) of a few wild individuals will not be detrimental to the environment. In fact, it is necessary for someone to keep and study them if we want them included in the world of captive herpetoculture.

As long as it is people interested in keeping the species with proper good husbandry and not a kid with the thing in a shoebox under his bed who will this hurt?

What a cutie!!!
i am not sure which type it is, but I would GUESS that it is not a gray tree frog. the gray's around here don't look at all like that. however, maybe you can search for both and compare how to take care of it from that? i have had green tree frogs and whites tree frogs. i don't guess that would help you with what to do with that one, but if you want, i can tell you what i did/do with them.
let us know once you figure out for sure what kind he/she is and what you name it!

jess

No its a Gray Treefrog I just dont know which one. Gray Tree Frogs can be green, brown or gray. Wisconsin only has 2 types of Tree Frogs hence I was able to narrow it down lol.

Keith

>>What a cutie!!!
>>i am not sure which type it is, but I would GUESS that it is not a gray tree frog. the gray's around here don't look at all like that. however, maybe you can search for both and compare how to take care of it from that? i have had green tree frogs and whites tree frogs. i don't guess that would help you with what to do with that one, but if you want, i can tell you what i did/do with them.
>>let us know once you figure out for sure what kind he/she is and what you name it!
>>
>>jess
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Funny.
Most of the ones here tend to have kinda camo looking designs on them is what i was going by though.
He is certainly cute, and I bet you will enjoy him!!

According to the field guide I have (MN, and we don't have many tree frogs either), Cope's and greys can change color from grey to green depending on mood and environment. I was just given a juvenile this morning, and he has been bright green all day.

Hopefully I'll see him change colors before we let him loose back where we found him. We should have him for about a month until my friends go back to the place they caught it.

Good luck with yours. They are darling little things.

Thats a nice Gray, never seen one completely lacking any pattern. Supposedly, You cannot distinguish chrysoscelis and versicolor from each other with the bare eye. H. chrysoscelis should have a faster trill and half the chromosomes of H. versicolor.

Keith,
As spoony said, chrysoscelis and versicolor are only distinguishable on the chromosome level or by differences in the call. They are identical in appearance. As far as the appearance of your grey goes (people commenting on it being green/patternless). There is nothing unusual in any way about that, and they are extremely variable. They can, depending upon mood and other things, lose their patterns, gain more, change green, brown, grey, etc. as you have already noted and undoubtedly know. I have many young grey tree frogs that have been raised since the early tadpole stage and can look completely standard grey with patterns to all green lacking all pattern depending on when you happen to look at them. They are quite common to encounter in my area as well and adults are easy to find in the breeding season. There of course is nothing wrong with taking an individual as long as they are in no way threatened or endangered in your area, which is also not what you asked in your post, but got in reply anyway instead of actual answers to your question. WC's have in my experience proven extremely hardy and easily as simple to keep as those raised from tads. Hope some of your questions were answered Keith.
KS

That it does NOT have the white bar under the eye, an indicator of Hyla versiclor/chrysoscelis. I suggest that it may be a released/escaped pet, or translocated individual of another species.
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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

I just looked at the picture again, and you're right. Though it does have a bar under its eye, it covers the eardrum, starts off further back, and is more brown than a grays.

Well, good luck with it anways...