The scientific name of romer's tree frog is Philautus Romeri. It is One of the three endangered amphibians in Hong Kong.: In 1952, Romer's Tree Frog was first discovered in a cave on Lamma Island by J. D. Romer, an amateur herpetologist and so it was named after him. That population disappeared in 1953 due to the collapse of the cave. Although once thought to be extinct, Romer's Tree Frog was re-discovered on Lamma Island in 1984. It Mainly eat insects and spiders. The activity time is At sunset or night time. It's habitat is usually live in forests with high humidity, also they love to living in clean fresh water steam. Their life expectancy is around 4-5 years.
Philautus romeri has protective colour which changes depending on the darkness of dry leaves around it, and it is its only way to escape from enemy's' attacks. They mate from March to August every year. After fusion the female lay around 70~100 eggs to water.A few days later tadpoles of only 1 mm long are born. The tadpoles need around 4 ~ 6 weeks to grow up. During this period they eat rotten dry leaves for life, yet only one in million can survive and become adult Philautus romeri. Romer's Tree Frog is endemic to Hong Kong and has only been recorded from some locations, namely Lantau, Lamma, Po Toi and previously in Chek Lap Kok. Its habitat is usually well-wooded areas near a small stream or other water source suitable for breeding. As the frog usually lives on ground or inside fallen leaves, its body colour and marking on the back can therefore match with its surrounding environment and provide camouflage effect for the frog. Over 200 individuals of the Romer's Tree Frog were rescued from the Chek Lap Kok before construction of the new Hong Kong airport there.
Some 2,000 captive populations of the frogs and tadpole were released to several sites in the territory. Monitoring of the sites has shown that the releases have generally been successful as breeding activities have been observed in most of the sites. In view of uniqueness of Romer's Tree Frog, a site that supports the largest population of the frog - part of Ngong Ping in Lantau, has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in May 1999. The SSSI has been included in the Ngong Ping Development Permission Area (DPA) Plan. Development within the site is subject to statutory planning control. All trading and petting of Philautus romeri are forbiddened.
