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WOOD FROG (rana sylvatica) - Composition Wednesday
© Erik McGregor - [email protected]
WOOD FROG (rana sylvatica) - Composition Friday
© Erik McGregor - [email protected] - 917-225-8963
WOOD FROG (rana sylvatica) - Composition Wednesday
© Erik McGregor - [email protected] - 917-225-8963
The wood frog is one of my favorite frogs. Aside from the incredible, tardigrade-like way it survives, it also has a few other features that make it enchanting. First, unlike most frogs, it is a diurnal, which means it spends its most active hours during daylight. Second, when it is time to mate, the male entices his female with quite the erogenous call. He croaks his melody....like a duck! Third, like grizzly bears, ladybugs, garter snakes and other organisms that go through torpor or experience hibernation, it creates a little hidey-hole for itself. This hidey-hole (for all organisms) is called a "hibernaculum."
So, the next time you feel the urge to make a blanket fort or hide away from the world, channel your inner wood frog. Snuggle in. Grab your favorite book. And if someone tries to disrupt you, cry, "Leave me alone when I'm in my hibernaculum!" Or better yet-- quack it.
Found this wood frog, Rana (Lithobates) sylvatica, yesterday near an ephemeral pond at Hildacy Farm Preserve, Media, Pennsylvania. A common frog, but still rather amazing when you look at its distribution … they can be found above the Arctic Circle in Alaska. [Pause for amazement.] That means they can tolerate being almost completely frozen in their hibernaculum for as long as 7 months, tolerating temperatures as low as -18 degrees Celsius (~0 degrees F). No other amphibian is found that far north. Part of their trick is jacking up the glucose concentration of muscles. If you chipped one out of the ice and grilled it quickly, it would taste a lot sweeter (13 fold!) than one grilled during the summer. But they also jack up their urea content so I’m not sure it would be a treat. #woodfrog #ranasylvatica #hildacyfarmpreserve #naturallandstrust #mediapa #frog #amphibian #ephemeralpond #lithobatessylvaticus #freezing #antifreeze #biology #hibernaculum #cryoprotection (at Hildacy Farm Preserve)
Lost In The Moss Forest by *Corrie* on Flickr.
