State of survival game keeps freezing2/22/2024 Wood frogs in Interior Alaska survive freezing to extreme limits and durations compared with those described in animals collected in southern Canada or the Midwestern United States. Antifreeze glycolipid was present in extracts from muscle and internal organs, but not skin, of frozen frogs. Mean glucose concentrations were 13-fold higher in muscle, 10-fold higher in heart and 3.3-fold higher in liver in naturally freezing compared with laboratory frozen frogs. Wood frogs in natural hibernacula remained frozen for 193☑1 consecutive days and experienced average (October–May) temperatures of −6.3☌ and average minimum temperatures of −14.6☒.8☌ (range −8.9 to −18.1☌) with 100% survival ( N=18). We also recorded the behavior of wood frogs preparing to freeze in artificial hibernacula, and tissue glucose concentrations in captive wood frogs frozen in the laboratory to −2.5☌. We measured cryoprotectant (glucose) concentrations and identified the presence of antifreeze glycolipids in tissues from subsamples of naturally freezing frogs. We investigated the ecological physiology and behavior of free-living wood frogs overwintering in Interior Alaska by tracking animals into natural hibernacula, recording microclimate, and determining frog survival in spring.
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