Common Name: Johnstone’s Whistling Frog or Lesser Antillean Whistling Frog
Scientific Name: Eleutherodactylus johnstonei
Family: Eleutherodactylidae
Locations: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Introduced Locations: Aruba, Bermuda, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Guyana, Jamaica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela
Size: .6 – 1.3 inches (17-35 mm)
The Johhnstone’s Whistling Frog is named after Robert S. Johnstone, the Chief Justice of Grenada, who helped collect the first specimens. These small frogs live on many of the islands in the eastern Caribbean and have spread to other areas. They can stow away easily on boats and are great at adapting to new areas.
The frogs breed throughout the year but mostly during the wettest months, June to August. Males produce whistling calls to attract females. Once the female finds the male, the male will back away while continuing to call. The female will follow and they move to a breeding site. The female will lay between 10 – 30 eggs. The male or the female protects the eggs until they hatch. The eggs hatch directly into froglets, skipping the tadpole stage.
