Because insects become scarce when the fall chill sets in, wood frogs might eat their numerous, highly available sons and daughters to help them survive the winter.
Updated: 34 minutes agoA wood frog pauses in the forest just off the Yukon River near the mouth of the Nation River.
While the rough-skinned newt, the northwestern and long-toed salamanders, the boreal toad and the spotted frog prefer the mild, wet climate of Southeast Alaska, the wood frog thrives throughout the state, even north of the Brooks Range. The wood frog also holds the lonely distinction of being the Yukon Territory’s only amphibian.
How wood frogs, a species that ranges as far south as Georgia, survived Alaska winters was a mystery until Michael Kirton inserted radioactive tags on 27 wood frogs in the fall of 1972 in Fairbanks. For his master’s thesis research at the University of Alaska, Kirton followed the frogs with a Geiger counter until they stopped moving in September.
Even with the insulation of forest litter and snow that help trap some of the Earth’s warmth, wood frogs’ bodies freeze solid in the winter. That includes their heart, brain and eyeballs. As that happens, their livers convert glycogen to sugary glucose, which helps cells resist drying.
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