Sexing Green Treefrogs.

[Jace]

Hey everyone. Can anyone tell me an effective way of sexing two adult Green treefrogs? Or can you tell from their pictures? Thanks!

[John]

Put them on a pain of glass and take a photo from underneath, please.

[Jace]

I will try, John. They are pretty stressed right now so I am going to give them a couple of days to settle and eat before I really start bugging them. As soon as I am able, I will do so and post the pics.

[JimO]

Obviously, and I know you are aware of this, if one or both start calling, you have a male or two. Here's a video of a male calling and they are very loud

YouTube - Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea) calling[/URL]

We have always kept a couple of female green tree frogs, but can't put up with the loud middle-of-the-night calling from the males. When we go "frogging" in the spring, we catch several around lights at night and put them in separate jars and in different rooms. Once we identify the males, they are released. We usually release the females before winter or we switch them out after fattening them up so they get a chance to breed.

Females are notably larger than males, reaching sizes of 2 to 2.5 inches. Males are a half inch to an inch smaller and have a wrinkled throat, which I believe is why John requested an underside photo.

How big are they and are they the same size? Do they both have a stripe running lengthwise from their head and part way down the body under the eye? Squirrel tree frogs, in particular, closely resemble greens, but they don't have the stripe. Occasionally a green won't have it either. They often have beautiful yellow flecks on their their green background.

[Jace]

Thanks, JimO. At the petstore, I was told they heard calling on several occassions, but not recently. One appears to have a slimmer body type, while the other one is more round. In terms of size, they are very close, with the rounder one looking to be slightly bigger. They both have the stripe running the lengths of their bodies. I have seen them both in beautiful shades of green, but as of right now, they are brown.

I am hoping one of them is a male. I have several male Fire Belly toads that call day and night; a Pacific Choros frog male who thinks 2-4 AM is the wooing period (especially since now he has a female partner), and an African Giant Bullfrog who grumbles at me on a nightly basis. I think if one of them is a boy, he will have to work hard to be heard over the din!

Thanks for the info; I really appreciate it. Once they are more settled, I will take more pictures and hopefully the mystery will be solved!