Wood Frog

Fascinating facts about the Wood Frog

• Wood frogs can survive being frozen for almost half a year. In natural hibernation they remain frozen for 193 +/- 11 consecutive days, reaching an average temperature of −6.3 °C and a minimum of −14.6 ± 2.8 °C, while tolerating the freezing of 65-70% of their body water. This extreme cryostasis lets them overwinter under leaf litter far north of the Arctic Circle.
• A single wood frog can travel hundreds of metres between breeding pools and its summer home, and its genetic neighborhoods stretch over a kilometre. Studies show adult frogs are 100% faithful to their first breeding pond, yet 18% of juveniles disperse to new pools, creating gene flow across the landscape.
• Wood frogs are the only North American frog that lives north of the Arctic Circle, spanning from northern Georgia to Alaska. Their range covers the boreal forest, tundra, making them the most widely distributed frog in Alaska and the northernmost amphibian on the continent.
• Wood frog tadpoles can develop from egg to hatching in as little as 10 days when water warms, but may need up to a month in cold early-spring pools. Eggs contain 1,000-3,000 embryos in a 10-13 cm jelly mass that turns green from algae, camouflaging them. Rapid development is crucial because the temporary vernal pools often dry before the tadpoles can leave, linking breeding timing directly to offspring survival.
• Wood frogs near farms have begun to survive chlorpyrifos exposure. Tadpoles collected from ponds close to agricultural fields showed higher survival after 48 hours in the pesticide than those from distant sites, suggesting rapid evolution of resistance.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia
• Animal Diversity Web
• Mongabay

At a glance

About the Wood Frog

In the ephemeral realm of the forest floor, the wood frog weaves its gentle magic, its mottled brown skin blending seamlessly into the damp, moss-softened terrain as it hops with quiet purpose, driven by ancient instincts to seek out the secluded pools and hidden clearings that will cradle its fragile, aquatic existence. With a quiet determination, it navigates the intricate network of twigs, leaves, and ferns, its sticky pads barely making a sound as it moves through the underbrush, a master of stealth and subtlety in a world of vibrant, unbridled life. As the seasons unfold, the wood frog's remarkable physiology allows it to freeze and thaw with the rhythms of nature, a true marvel of adaptation in this ever-changing, verdant world.

Wood Frog photographed on Feravox

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