Research Abstract

Behavioral regulation of body temperature in Litoria caerula

The Green Tree Frog (Litoria caerula) is an ectotherm and thus regulates its body temperature behaviorally. For five days in the winter of 2001 I studied a population of L. caerula on Lizard Island, Australia. To find out whether or not time of day, and therefore temperature, had any effect on the distribution of tree frogs I counted the number of frogs in three lateral zones and two vertical zones. I found that the distribution does change during the course of the day, and that while vertical location is independent of time, lateral location of L. caerula changes with respect to the time of day.