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Grey Tree Frog or Foam Nest Frog

Grey tree frogs are often found in human habitations, especially around the lodge. This is where I found my first Grey tree frog, on top of a photo frame, agents the wall.  I removed it and put it outside on some shrubs and had my photoshoot. It is a great model.
 
As their name suggests, Grey tree frogs are arboreal (live in trees.) To facilitate life in vegetation, they have broad pads on the ends of the toes which help the frog when leaping. They are also able to change the colour of their skin from cryptic grey for camouflage against bark to pale white to thermoregulate (control heat). They are also able to ‘sweat’ droplets of liquid to reduce their temperature by evaporative cooling during excessively hot weather.
 
Grey tree frogs are able to absorb water rapidly through their skin which allows them to remain out of the water and their arboreal habitat and they further conserve water by excreting concentrated uric acid.
 
The alternate name for the Grey tree frog is Foam nest frog and this is derived from its breeding strategy which is also focused in the arboreal world. After good rains, Foam nest frog females choose an ephemeral pool over which hangs some form of vegetation. Here, with the assistance of an amplexing male as well as multiple male ‘bystanders’, the female will use her hind legs to whip up a protective froth, delivered from an oviduct secretion, to surround her eggs as they are laid and fertilised. Often, she must clamber down to the water below to rehydrate several times during the process. An attendance of males may simply add their sperm to the mixture relying on sperm competition to fertilise some of her eggs. This improves the genetic of the blood. 
 
The resultant foam nest is usually the size of a small melon and resembles a hanging meringue (sometimes adjacent nests will fuse to create massive ones). It dries around the eggs to protect them from the sun and from predators and to provide constant incubation conditions. Once the tadpoles have hatched and grown a little (reach 1 cm), the nest will begin degenerating (after about 4 or 5 days) and the tadpoles will drop out the bottom and into the pool of water below.

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