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Some frogs freeze solid

Q: Why do frogs not live in cold places, like Antarctica-Meg S., Ballston spa, NY

A: Some frogs do. The Eastern wood frog is found even north of the Arctic Circle, where they not only survive freezing but do so every winter.

Right: [Janet & Kenneth Storey, Carleton U] A frozen wood frog

Sixty-seven percent of the frog's body freezes hard but not inside the cells. As the frog slowly freezes over several hours, he pumps large amounts of glucose anti-freeze into his cells. Gradually he stops breathing, his heart stops, his brain activity ceases but his cells don't freeze. He stays this way for two or three months.

Come spring, when the land thaws, so does his body. Within an hour or two "the Frog will recover his Summer Activity, and leap as usual," reported an astounded Captain Francis Smith in his ship's log, May 1747, near the Canadian Arctic Circle.

Freeze-tolerant frogs, however, only exist in North America.

Antarctica has no frogs for good reasons: no place to live, no food to eat, gulls and skuas ready to strike, and too cold even in the summer for a cold-blooded frog to hop around.

Mites and springtails (small wingless insects that bound through the air on belly springs) are the largest land animals in Antarctica and the largest carnivore is smaller across than a poppy seed, says Julian Paren of the British Antarctica Survey.

The mildest temperatures, found around the coasts, plunge as low as -30°C (-22°F) in the winter. Even the Eastern wood frog would be out of luck here. He freezes to a body temperature of -5°C (23°F) without a hitch but lower the temperature to -15°C (5°F) and he dies. No one knows why.

(Answered by April Holladay, science correspondent, July 11, 2001)

Further Surfing:

Understanding Antarctic biology and wildlife http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/cold-science/indexes/antarctic-understanding-wildlife.htm

Carleton U: Freeze tolerant vertebrates

British Antarctic Survey: About Antarctica

Comment

Readers' Comments:

  • There is a frog, Rana amurensis, that extends into tundra well north of the Arctic circle in eastern Siberia. Typically this species would hibernate in large groups, although it would be exposed to extremely cold conditions and may perhaps also freeze like its North American cousins.  Michael, South Africa

 

 

 

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