This species generally inhabits mesic habitats but may be found in xeric habitat in the Bahamas, living in all kinds of disturbed habitats, including towns and houses. It is also present in forests, mangroves and coastal areas. It can also tolerate brackish water. It is found on the ground and on tree trunks. Males call from vegetation near pooled rainwater. Eggs are laid in still water, including pools, marshes, flood pastures, and ditches. Eggs and young have also been found in pooled rainwater along rocky tidal areas in the Bahamas (R.G. Reynolds pers. obs.). It is competing with other species, and preys upon native amphibians in the wild. It might also be a vector for pathogens. It is preyed upon by some snakes in the Bahamas, including Cubophis, Chilabothrus, and Tropidophis (R.G. Reynolds pers. obs.). 

Breeding events have been found to last only one night and male mating behavior changes from acoustic competition to scramble searching over the breeding event. Most males have similar opportunities to mate with a female, and there doesn't appear to be a direct adaptive benefit for high mating selectivity by females, which can increase the invasive capacity of this species (Vargas Salinas 2006).

This species is native to the Cuban mainland, Isla de Juventud (Cuba), Archipelago de los Canarreos (Cuba), the Archipelago de Sabana-Camaguey (Cuba), Cayos de San Felipe (Cuba) the Cayman Islands, and the following places in the Bahamas: Little Bahama Bank (Grand Bahama and Abaco cays), Great Bahama Bank (Andros Islands, Berry Islands, Bimini Islands, Cat Island, Eleuthera Islands, Exuma Islands, Long Island, and New Providence Islands), and on Conception Island Bank, Rum Cay, San Salvador, Crooked-Acklins Bank, and introduced (questionably) on Great Inagua Island (Schwartz and Henderson 1991). 

In the West Indies, it is introduced on Jamaica (D. Whyte and D. Calder pers. comm. 2020); Puerto Rico; the U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas); Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Beef Island and Peter Island (British Virgin Islands; Owen et al. 2005); the Turks and Caicos Islands (Providenciales, North Caicos, Middle Caicos, East Caicos; Reynolds and Neimiller 2010, Reynolds et al. 2011); and many Lesser Antillean Islands: Anguilla (Townsend et al. 2000), St. Martin/St. Maarten (Yokoyama 2012), St. Barthelemy, Nevis (Lindsay et al. 2019), Antigua, St. Lucia and Mustique in the St. Vincent Grenadines (Powell and Henderson 2020). Recent introductions along the Caribbean and south coast of Dominica, within or near ports of entry, are associated with container shipments of hurricane relief supplies during the aftermath of Hurricane Maria (van den Burg et al. 2020). Waifs are known from the Lesser Antillean Island of Saba (Powell 2007) and two individuals were interdicted in Grenada in 2013 (Somma and Graham 2015), and thus are not mapped. Introductions outside of the West Indies include Curaçao, the Florida Keys and mainland Florida, coastal Georgia, Louisiana, and Hawaii in the USA (Morningstar and Daniel 2020); and Costa Rica (e.g. Kraus 2009, Frost 2020). 

It occurs from sea level up to 1,110 m asl.

Conservation Actions In-Place
It occurs in many protected areas.

Research Needed
Further research on this species' distribution, population size and trends is recommended. There is a need for monitoring the population status of this species given its ability to invade new habitats and direct predation of native herpetofauna.

McKeown, Sean. A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians in the Hawaiian Islands. Diamond Head Publishing Company, 1996