The diet of the spotted tree frog is largely that of insects known to inhabit wet woodland areas, such as flying insects like moths, foraging ants, or small spiders. The life span of frogs is something of a mystery as of 2011, but most are assumed to live around five to 15 years in the wild, whereas the spotted tree frog is estimated to live about 10 years. Frogs generally live shorter lives than toads, but some tree frogs can live for over 25 years, such as Litoria caerulea, or the Common Green Tree frog.
Mating for the spotted tree frog occurs in late spring and early summer, from October to December. While the frog lives in remote, mountainous areas that are rocky and largely inaccessible to larger animals, their numbers are in decline. The offspring tadpoles themselves have good camouflage markings of dark brown color with gold flecks and gold eyes to match stones in the water, and they remain motionless when predators approach. Despite this, it is believed that two of the primary causes for the decline in numbers of the spotted tree frog are the presence of introduced trout into the rivers and streams where they live, which feed on large numbers of hatched tadpoles, and disease caused by declining water quality including herbicide contamination.
While the female Spencer's tree frog mates and lays anywhere from 300 to 1,000 eggs between shallow river or creek stones, most of these don't survive to maturity. The Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999 (EPBC) has listed the spotted tree frog as endangered. Efforts to prevent the species from going extinct include captive breeding programs, habitat restoration, and extensive research into their life cycle as of 1994.