Hyla orientalis
Silhouette: Will Booker · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Hyla orientalis, also known as the eastern tree frog, oriental tree frog or Shelkovnikov's tree frog, is a species from the genus Hyla. The species was originally described by Jacques von Bedriaga in 1890, and is found in eastern and southeastern Europe as well as Asia Minor and parts of west Asia.
Tree frogs living within the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone have a remarkably darker dorsal skin coloration than frogs from outside the Zone. Dark coloration is known to protect against different sources of radiation by neutralizing free radicals and reducing DNA damage, and, particularly melanin pigmentation has been proposed as a buffering mechanism against ionizing radiation. Exposure to high levels of ionizing radiation, likely at the time of the accident, may have been selected for darker coloration in Chornobyl tree frogs.
Media related to Hyla orientalis at Wikimedia Commons Wikipedia →
Advertisement call1:01
Russian Federation · 2024
© Albert Lastukhin · XC900440 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Recording1:19
Ukraine · 2018
© Stuart Fisher · XC423307 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Recording0:42
Russia · 2026
© alopecurus · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Białowieża National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Shelkovnikov's Tree Frog sighting in Białowieża National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 4th most-seen of the 5 amphibians we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May and August
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Shelkovnikov's Tree Frog in Białowieża National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June–July and September–March, the lowest months.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Shelkovnikov's Tree Frog sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
Only Białowieża National Park, in our data
Białowieża National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Shelkovnikov's Tree Frog sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Anura
The closest relatives of the Shelkovnikov's Tree Frog that you can see in Białowieża National Park (order Anura, Frogs and Toads) are European Toad (about 70%), European Common Frog (about 70%) and Moor Frog (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Shelkovnikov's Tree Frog is recorded against all the amphibians logged in Białowieża National Park (6 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
