So what is this critter? What is this cacophonist? Why the Cuban treefrog, Osteopilus septentrionalis, of course. This is a big hylid with a big appetite and it seems to be an inordinately fecund species. It was first noticed in Florida in the 1920s on Mattecumbe Key, where it is thought to have arrived as a stowaway (could it have actually rafted here naturally? Why not? Cuba is only 90 miles away and some of the Bahama Islands are even closer). By the ‘50s it had moved northward and was well established on the Florida mainland. Once here it seems to have edged its way a bit northward with every passing year. Ignored at first, it is now classified as an invasive species and has accrued many enemies. Why? Because as a big frog (females can reach a snout-vent length of 5 inches, males less than half that) with (I don’t think I mentioned its appetite before) a prodigious appetite and what gets eaten must eventually be excreted! The Cuban treefrog can be and often is a messy neighbor that consumes not only insects and other arthropods, but our native treefrogs as well. And it does have a virulent protective skin secretion that, if you are careless enough to rub your eyes and you haven’t washed your hands thoroughly after handling a Cuban treefrog, will bring on considerable discomfort and copious tears. You will have cause to remember this frog unkindly. To this I can attest!

So is there anything good about this frog? Well, truthfully, in its now confirmed role as a toxic-skinned, invasive, cannibal, not too much. But they’re here and they’re spreading, and I do think that they are a bit over-maligned. I heard the argument that they would wipe out our native treefrogs when I lived in Miami 60 years ago. But you know what? Despite a robust population of Cuban treefrogs our native hylids are still there—perhaps in reduced numbers—but they are still there. I wonder if we can ever learn to live with the big invasive?

Brown, with or without a darker pattern, is the most commonly seen color of the Cuban treefrog.


Capable of noted color changes, the same Cuban treefrog may be brown one minute and green 5 minutes later.