Red-eyed tree frog

The red-eyed tree frog is a small, colourful frog with a lime-green body, bright blue-and-white sides, and orange feet. Best of all are its two big, round, ruby-red eyes. It is only a few centimetres long, small enough to sit on a leaf, and females are a little bigger than males.

This frog lives in the warm, wet rainforests of Central America and southern Mexico. It is a wonderful climber. Tiny sticky pads on its toes help it hold onto leaves and branches high up in the trees. It spends the daytime resting and comes out at night to look for food.

Those red eyes are a clever trick. While the frog sleeps, it folds its legs in and closes its green eyelids, so it looks like a plain green leaf and is hard to spot. If an animal comes too close, the frog flashes its big red eyes wide open. The sudden surprise gives the frog a moment to leap away to safety.

At night the red-eyed tree frog hunts for insects such as crickets, flies, and moths, and sometimes even smaller frogs. When it is time for babies, a mother frog climbs onto a leaf that hangs above a pond and lays her eggs there. When the eggs hatch, the little tadpoles wriggle free and drop down into the water below.

For now, red-eyed tree frogs are listed as least concern, which means many still live in the wild. But their forest home is being cut down in some places, and frogs everywhere can get sick from a harmful fungus. Protecting rainforests helps keep these bright little frogs hopping.