This week for Flora and Fauna Friday it’s the gray-green window hopper, the Squirrel Treefrog (Hyla squirella).
The Squirrel Treefrog is found throughout the coastal plain of the Southeast and the whole of the South Carolina Lowcountry. It’s the most generalist of our Treefrog species and can be found in most moist forest habitats and across the Sea Islands, even tolerating some brackish conditions. They’re on the smaller side for Treefrogs, at an inch-and-a-quarter long, and range in color from lime-green to mottled khaki-brown to a pale greenish-gray, and everything in between. Thus, they can be a real devil to identify, especially since Squirrel Treefrogs lack any distinctive features. You have to use process of elimination most of the time. If it lacks the white flank strip of the Green Treefrog (H. cinerea), the warty skin of the Cope’s Gray Treefrog (H. chrysoscelis), and the yellow thigh spots of the Pinewoods Treefrog (H. femoralis), then you can be decently sure it’s a Squirrel Treefrog!
Another way to identify them is through their song. The male Squirrel Treefrog’s song is a monotonous string of the phrase “bahk”, a gravelly croak repeated about twice a second. They get the “squirrel” in their common name from their song, which is reminiscent of the scolding calls of an Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Squirrel Treefrogs are known for their “rain calls”, singing immediately after the onset of rainy weather, wherever they happen to be hanging out. Like all our Treefrogs, they rely on ephemeral wetlands to breed. Places that flood for prolonged periods after heavy rain but dry out during the year, keeping the wetland free of fish and making a perfect nursery for tadpoles.
Squirrel Treefrogs are the most likely amphibian in the Lowcountry to set up shop around your home. About your place they’ll hide from the day’s rays behind shutters, between pots, and up downspouts, only piping up to celebrate a storm cloud. At dusk during the warm months they’ll emerge to chase insects, attracted to porch lights and the amber glow of windows.
