Pine Barrens Tree Frog

Status: Endangered.

Description: Long limbs and digits ending in adhesive disks for climbing trees and twigs. Males have a vocal sac which connects beneath their necks and may inflate. The coloration of pine barrens treefrogs is green with lavender stripes bordered in white. Considerable orange also occurs along their legs' folds.

Size: 1.125 to 1.75 inches long. Females grow larger than males.

Habitat: The pine barrens treefrog is a resident of the swamps, bogs, and warm acid waters of the New Jersey pine barrens and the pocosins (shrub bogs) of the Carolinas.

Range: From southern New Jersey to North and South Carolina, as far west as central Alabama, and occasionally as far south as the Florida panhandle.

Food Source: Small insects and other invertebrates.

Population: Development pressure has led to declines in pine barrens treefrog populations - three distinct populations remain, with the greatest number of remaining individuals located in New Jersey.

Voice: A nasal quonk-quonk-quonk repeated at a rate of about 25 times in 20 seconds (on warm nights - more slowly on colder ones). Call is lower in pitch and carries less well than the call of most other species of treefrogs.

Reproduction: Breeding occurs in late spring in New Jersey, and from April to September farther south. The female pine barrens treefrog is attracted by the singing male, and mating takes place. Several groups of eggs, each of which can contain over 1000 individual eggs, are places onto plant stems and stuck a few centimeters under water. After hatching, the juvenile treefrog passes through a phase as a tadpole before its metamorphosis into an adult - this entire process takes about two months.

Survival Threats: Habitat loss due to expanding human population pressure, use of pesticides such as DDT.

Legal Protection: Endangered Species Act.