Can tree frogs learn behaviors from one another?

[elly]

Judging from what I've seen I don't think they really recognize other frogs as anything more than squishy beanbag chairs or possible food items/mates.

On the other hand, my larger frog was extremely shy until he was introduced into a tank with a smaller frog. After a few months of watching the little frog go outside the tank, he was finally brave enough to step outside himself.

I don't know whether this was due to confidence from being in a heavily planted tank, or maybe just the passage of time. But when I got him he was in quarantine for three or four months and all that time he seemed frightened of me.

[irThumper]

I personally believe that tree frogs are particularly intelligent amongst the frog species. My Milk frogs, Echo and Otto, were at the shop (independent reptile specialty shop, not a "big box" or regular pet store) from the time they were young oow froglets (July 2014) until I purchased them this June 2015 (they were the last two out of a big batch). They were quite thin, though not bony, and weren't as large as I would have expected them to be at their age. All the froglets had been in a small-tall Exo-terra originally, but the store for some reason separated the last two into individual 5 gallon (or smaller) tanks. They thought the slightly larger guy would cannibalize the smaller one-- I didn't see that as being a problem as their size difference wasn't that great. When I got them home both frogs went into QT together in an 18x18X24 Exo-terra and were fed a daily diet of crickets alternated with waxworms... they grew, FAST, with the smaller one outdistancing the big one in size! Now both were totally wild and would leap away anytime I opened the cage to do anything. One day I tried putting butterworms in their feeding dish, they tried them and DETESTED them. In 2 days they didn't eat any butterworms, so I tossed some crickets in the dish... they didn't eat the crickets :/ Butterworms have a certain odor, so I thought maybe this was why they didn't eat the crickets. I washed the dish and started over, but the Milkies didn't trust the dish after that apparently. After 4 days they were starting to look thin again, so on a hunch I took a cricket in hand and stuck it in front of the nose of one of the sleeping frogs-- he grabbed it in his sleep! He woke up and ate four crickets by hand this way. The other guy had woken up and initially moved away when I put my hand in the tank, but he saw the first guy eating from my hand, so the next time I reached in he actually took the cricket from me right away. I have to think that was a learned response, as before this both frogs did everything they could to avoid me... now when I just walk by they turn to stare at me, and when I open the cage door they jump in my direction. They definitely are smart!