LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — A creepy little critter has taken a liking to setting off the security system at a Lehigh Acres home.
Dean Gordon was fast asleep early Sunday morning when all of a sudden his phone buzzed with a notification. When he picked it up, he could barely believe his drowsy eyes.
“I thought it was a human hand and I was like, ‘Hold on. Let me watch it again,’” Gordon said.
It was quite the wake-up call, especially for 1:40 a.m. Quite frankly, it was the last thing he expected to see moving in his backyard.
“Then I said, ‘That looks like an octopus,’” Gordon said.
It’s a little closer to a guess, but still not there yet. Nonetheless, it was enough to intrigue Gordon enough to share the video on Facebook, asking anyone to help figure out what exactly the critter could be. However, his interest really sparked the next night.
“The second video was from around front,” Gordon said. “That’s when he stopped and I saw the leg and I think the eye. You could see the frog’s legs, big eye.”
It turns out that the creepy critter is actually a tree frog, a Cuban tree frog to be exact.
The little frog that freaked Gordon out can actually climb. It’s usually trees, but they’re found all over, according to experts.
“If it’s in urban areas, you’ll see them crawling up onto signs and onto people’s roofs,” said Florida Gulf Coast University Visiting Instructor Matthew Metcalf.
In this case, it’s on top of Gordon’s cameras. There’s no telling why they’ve taken a liking to his cameras, but it could be for food. They’re not harmful to you or me. However, they aren’t good for the ecosystem.
“They’re invasive because they’re really big, they take up space that our native species would typically be inhabiting and they’re also, they eat everything,” said Metcalf.
Cuban tree frogs came to the U.S. from Cuba and other Caribbean islands. They’ve been here for 100+ years, but still, FGCU students are studying them on their campus.
“We are going to look at some of the pipes that we have set up to actually capture tree frogs,” Metcalf said.
The pipes are little safe havens for tree frogs. Think about being tucked under the covers at night, just like Gordon was when the little frog woke him up over the weekend.
“Usually nighttime is the most active,” Metcalf said.
In all, roughly six trees and nearly 20 tubes were checked.
“Nope,” said Metcalf looking down the narrow tubes. “Nobody’s in there. Strikeout again. Nope. Looks like frog poop in there though.”
That’s the closest we got to a Cuban tree frog. But we’re surrounded by them. They’re all over Southwest Florida, including in your neck of the woods.
By their looks, they’re pretty common, but there is one big giveaway.
“Their bones have kind of like a blueish tint to them,” Metcalf explained.
Back at Gordon’s house along 69th Street West in Lehigh Acres, he’s still wondering why they love his cameras so much, a truly “ribbiting” mystery.
Maybe if they keep it up, one night he’ll find out.
“They let me sleep last night. I’m not sure what’s going to happen tonight,” Gordon said.
Gage Goulding
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