Where Do Red-Eyed Tree Frogs Live? Central American Rainforests

Red-eyed tree frog range: from Mexico to Colombia

The red-eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas) has a fairly large range for a tropical frog. It stretches from southern Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama to northwestern Colombia.

Within this region, the frog is most widespread on the Caribbean (Atlantic) side of Central America, where the climate is wet for much of the year. It also lives on the Pacific side in parts of Costa Rica and Panama, especially in forests that receive enough rain. It does not live in the drier lowlands or in the cool highlands, and it is not found in the Amazon basin or on Caribbean islands.

What kind of habitat do red-eyed tree frogs need?

The red-eyed tree frog is a rainforest specialist, but the most important part of its habitat is water. It needs:

• Still or slow water for breeding, such as ponds, swamps, oxbows, flooded ditches and large rain-filled pools.
• Plants hanging over the water, because the frogs lay their eggs on leaves directly above it. The tadpoles drop into the water when they hatch.
• High humidity, usually well above 80 percent. The frog’s thin skin loses water quickly in dry air.
• Warm temperatures, typical of tropical lowlands throughout the year.

These conditions are found mostly from sea level up to about 1,250 m (4,100 ft). Above that, nights become too cool and the forest changes character.

The frogs can survive in more than pristine forest. They use secondary forest that has regrown after clearing, forest edges, plantations with good cover and even gardens and lodges near ponds. This tolerance is one reason the species is still widespread and listed as Least Concern by the IUCN.

Where do red-eyed tree frogs live in the forest?

Red-eyed tree frogs are arboreal. They live in the vegetation rather than on the ground, using their sticky toe pads to climb leaves, stems and branches. You can learn how those pads grip in how do tree frogs stick to leaves?.

Their daily routine moves them through different layers of the forest:

• By day, they sleep on the underside of broad leaves, often in the middle and upper layers of the vegetation, pressed flat with their eyes closed.
• By night, they wake to hunt insects among branches and leaves, sometimes high in the trees.
• In the breeding season, they gather in the shrubs and low trees around ponds, where males call and pairs lay eggs.

In the dry season, when conditions in the upper canopy become too dry, the frogs tend to shelter lower down in moister vegetation, closer to the forest floor.

When and where do red-eyed tree frogs breed?

Breeding happens in the rainy season, roughly from May to November in much of the range, when ponds fill and the air stays wet. At this time, dozens of frogs can gather at a single pond. Males call with short “chack” sounds, and paired frogs lay clutches of eggs in jelly on leaves over the water.

After about 6 to 10 days, the tadpoles hatch and fall into the pond. They grow in the water for several weeks to a few months before turning into froglets and climbing back into the vegetation. The general process is described in how do tadpoles turn into frogs?.

Where can you see red-eyed tree frogs?

The easiest places to see them are in Costa Rica and Panama, where they are a highlight of guided night walks. Well-known sites include lowland rainforests on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, such as the area around La Selva Biological Station and Tortuguero, and the forests near the Panama Canal, including Barro Colorado Island, a research station where much of the science on these frogs has been done.

The best chance is on a warm, wet night in the rainy season near a forest pond. Look for males calling on leaves just above the water and for clutches of pale green eggs stuck to leaf surfaces. Outside their native range, red-eyed tree frogs are often displayed in zoos and aquariums in North America and Europe.

Threats to red-eyed tree frog habitat

Although the species is not threatened overall, its habitat is under pressure in many places. Clearing forest for farmland, cattle pasture and settlements removes the trees it lives in, and draining wetlands removes its breeding ponds. Amphibian diseases such as chytrid fungus and ranaviruses have affected frogs across Central America. Protected rainforests and well-managed wetlands are the frog’s best safeguard.

For other species that share these forests, see the list of rainforest animals, and for more on this frog, read the red-eyed tree frog profile.