CRITTERS OF NORTH IDAHO: Pacific tree frog

During North Idaho winters, the only wildlife you are likely to see are mammals, birds and (maybe) a few fish. Amphibians and reptiles are unable to be active during the winter because they are ectothermic, or “cold-blooded.” Now this doesn’t mean they literally have cold blood; the term actually means that their metabolism is dependent on the surrounding environment. If it’s cold outside, ectothermic animals are sluggish and largely immobile. When winter transitions into spring, cold-blooded animals are out and about in abundance, some in the mood for love.

One of them is the Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla). How do you know you’re looking at a Pacific tree frog and not some similar frog? Well, you’re going to want to make sure you’re looking at a frog 2-5 centimeters in length, with green, gray or reddish brown skin with small, dark splotches along its side. You’ll also see a characteristic dark “mask” across the eyes, from nose to shoulder, and a y-shaped mark between the eyes. If you see all those traits, you’ve got yourself a Pacific tree frog!

If you recognize this frog, you may know it as the state frog of our neighbor state, Washington. However, they can also be found elsewhere along the Pacific coast of North America, from northern California and Oregon to as far north as British Columbia. Some adventurous populations can even be found living in the extreme southern Alaskan wilderness.

Despite its name, Pacific tree frogs are poor climbers and prefer to live on the ground. They like to live in forests, woodlands, grasslands and pastures. Like most amphibians, Pacific tree frogs need to keep their skin wet to survive, so they never stray too far from a water source. If they are in a pinch though, they can defend themselves from dehydration by producing a waxy substance in their skin.

Want to know another interesting thing about the Pacific tree frog’s skin? When it’s time for them to molt, they literally eat their old skin!

Remember when I said these frogs are in the mood for love. This occurs when the weather is warmer.

That’s because their breeding season coincides with the return of warm weather, usually between November and July depending on when spring arrives in a specific region. This is when these usually solitary amphibians congregate in large numbers in marshes, ditches, ponds, swamps and lakes.

Pacific tree frogs are a favorite of frog-lovers because on evenings and nights during their mating seasons, the males produce a distinctive “krrek...eek” call with their vocal sacs. Males also compete for the best spots from which to bring in the ladies.

After mating, male Pacific tree frogs play no part in rearing the young and simply wait for the next female to arrive. When it is time for an impregnated female to lay between 450-800 eggs (imagine that family reunion!), she finds sticks or other debris in shallow, calm water, depositing her brood in clusters of 10-70 eggs. Soon afterward, fish-like tadpoles emerge from the eggs and spend the next three months of their lives swimming together as a group until they grow the big mouths and long legs of fully-grown frogs.

Pacific tree frogs must always remain alert for predators, so as to not end up as someone else’s meal. Birds, minks, snakes, herons, raccoons, and even American bullfrogs are just a few of the animals that see pacific tree frogs as food. But these hoppers are predators too, hunting smaller invertebrates like ants, beetles, flies, mosquitoes and small spiders. So long as they remain well-fed and out of reach of predators, Pacific tree frogs usually live 3-6 years in the wild.

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Christian Ryan is a Press correspondent and Athol resident. Email Ryan: animaladventures1314@gmail.com

HOMESCHOOL PROJECT

FROG IRON-ON TRANSFER

This week we have a very cool project for you. It is a Frog Iron-On Transfer. You can use it for T-shirts, any cotton, linen or canvas item such as tote bags, aprons, dish towels and bibs. You can also use these transfers when sewing your own tote bags, aprons and the like.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

Printer

Iron

Ironing Board

Iron-On Transfer Printer Paper

(You can purchase this printer paper from your local office supply store or you can get it from Amazon.com.)

T-Shirt (Or tote bag, etc.)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Make sure you follow the instructions you get with the iron-on transfers very carefully. If you have trouble peeling the transfer off, just put everything back down and iron it a bit more. To avoid this, make sure you wait long enough.

2. As far as printing the transfers, you have to figure out if your printer prints on the top or the bottom. Print the word TEST on a scrap piece of paper. Before printing, put an X on the front of the paper (face up) and that way, you know whether it prints on the face up or face down side.

3. Make sure you set your margins as low as you can. Go into FILE, PRINT SETUP or FILE, PAGE SETUP in most browsers. Adjust your margins to 25 or so. Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page. In this same location you can also turn off your header and footer.

4. Find a copyright-free template of a frog that you like from the internet. If you choose a template with words it will look backward. To read any words, you have to hold them up to a mirror. This isn’t a mistake. It is how it has to be for the iron-on to work.

5. Print the photo of the frog. Close template window when done printing.

There are many other iron-on transfers available on the market. I am listing a link to one of them.

IRON-ON LINK

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004TS2H/leanneeldridge#

If you have been finding these projects helpful please let us know. We would love your feedback.

Project provided by Angel Dominiq

angeldominiq13@gmail.com