Cubans? In South Alabama?

[MyfrogGatsby]

Hey you guys! It's been a while since I've posted but everyone is doing just fine! The sickly american green I rescued from a petsmart is fat and happy. Myfrog is larger than ever and Fin is getting less skittish of me everyday. The toads are eating like crazy and digging up my plants:/ But i love them anyways. BUT. Here's the issue.

I may have cuban tree frogs in my back yard. which would explain the huge decrease in my american green population outside. Anyways, I looked up what I could on these guys and am trying to get a positive id on the two juvenile ones ive wrangled from outside. Can you guys help me out?

Both of them are smaller than an inch and a light sage green/ tan color with darker splotches on their backs. No side stripe like with american greens and they have super yellow armpits and gens. But both seem to be missing that "blue leg bone" that juvy cubans are said to possess. Here are the photos.
Help me out if you can! Thanks a ton!

[Mentat]

I'm no expert on Cuban Tree Frogs; but those pics look like juveniles of them. Can read more about them in here and as the article states; they are present in Alabama: WEC218/UW259: The Cuban Treefrog (Osteopilus septentrionalis) in Florida .

[ejh805]

Hey Autumn! Looks like a Cuban to me. I'm in southern Alabama as well, and the climate here would certainly allow them to flourish. It's quite possible that's what is in those pictures.

[UncleChester]

Toepads look too small, it has yellow flash colours, and it appears to have a little light green square below each eye? Looks more like a Grey treefrog, Hyla chrysoscelis are the Alabama variety, to me. You can check if the skin on the top of it's head is fused to the skull to rule out Cuban (see Florida Wildlife Extension at UF/IFAS)

[poison]

Looks like a not yet mature cuban to me. Those eyes don't look right for a grey tree.

[Java]

As owner of a Cuban.. those are Cubans (juvies as adults can be as big as your hand.) They actually make great domestic pets straight from the wild- at that age. You're suppose to kill them on site, sadly, anyway. Instead of doing this, I just adopt them when I see them (I actually don't see that many even though I'm only an hour and so away from Orlando..)

They get huge and they're pretty docile. If you're looking to add to your collection, I'd take up these guys. They're highly intelligent for frogs and are pretty great. Mine begs to be held and let's me take him on "walks". :b

[Java]

Toepads look too small, it has yellow flash colours, and it appears to have a little light green square below each eye? Looks more like a Grey treefrog, Hyla chrysoscelis are the Alabama variety, to me. You can check if the skin on the top of it's head is fused to the skull to rule out Cuban (see Florida Wildlife Extension at UF/IFAS)

The only problem with this site is that they show mostly adult Cubans.. Babies look very different from adults (their pads grow bigger, they start loosing full coloration and become kind of solid, etc. They also start to look like Dumpies.. only a different color, lol.) Grey's eyes are usually full of patterns and shapes.. Cubans don't have that so much and lose it even more as they get older. Greys have more brown and Cubans have more tan.

Hope this helps! Look at side-by-side pictures, if possible.

[UncleChester]

The only problem with this site is that they show mostly adult Cubans.. Babies look very different from adults (their pads grow bigger, they start loosing full coloration and become kind of solid, etc. They also start to look like Dumpies.. only a different color, lol.) Grey's eyes are usually full of patterns and shapes.. Cubans don't have that so much and lose it even more as they get older. Greys have more brown and Cubans have more tan.

Hope this helps! Look at side-by-side pictures, if possible.

From the OP's picture, I can't see ruling out a Grey's eyes as they aren't always all that dark overall (some have very fine patterns) and it's not a very close shot. It's the first picture that makes me think it has the lighter square patch below the eyes (which would be very compelling), but I think it's hard to tell definitively one way or the other from these photo and I could very well be wrong on this.

I didn't know that Cuban toepads started out proportionally smaller, that's interesting and definitely a point for Cuban. Reddish eyes are also often mentioned for young Cubans, do you know how prevalent this is or how long it tends to last? Finally, do you know if the fused skin to the skull is present in the juvenile as well? This seems to be the surest test for a Cuban vs Native in the US.

[MyfrogGatsby]

I'm thinking probably not a grey tree frog. The patterning just doesn't seem to match up. But maybe if they're not Cubans they're squirrel tree frogs. I found some pics of them that look fairly similar to mine. Any ideas?