How hibernating frogs survive in freezing temperatures
What's the chemistry of hibernation?
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News •
The Culprit Behind Thousands of Ancient Frog Deaths Are Owls
• Nov. 10, 2026, 11:50 AM ET (Gizmodo)
Transcript
It's not just astronauts that have to survive in hostile environments, some creatures have to cope with freezing conditions on earth.
Deep below the ice and snow of the Canadian tundra is a hibernating frog. But unlike most hibernating creatures it survives not by avoiding the extreme low temperature, it succumbs to it. Most of its blood, even its eyes, are frozen solid.
But what about the thaw? Most living creatures can't survive freezing because as the water in their cells turns into ice, it expands. The cells would burst, destroying their structure. But he survives because his cells have specially elastic walls and some of them are filled with higher levels of a key chemical, glucose.
Glucose stops the water in his delicate cells from freezing, and so prevents destruction. No human could tolerate concentrations of sugar at this level, and the frog has a mechanism to reabsorb the sugar as it thaws out.
Deep below the ice and snow of the Canadian tundra is a hibernating frog. But unlike most hibernating creatures it survives not by avoiding the extreme low temperature, it succumbs to it. Most of its blood, even its eyes, are frozen solid.
But what about the thaw? Most living creatures can't survive freezing because as the water in their cells turns into ice, it expands. The cells would burst, destroying their structure. But he survives because his cells have specially elastic walls and some of them are filled with higher levels of a key chemical, glucose.
Glucose stops the water in his delicate cells from freezing, and so prevents destruction. No human could tolerate concentrations of sugar at this level, and the frog has a mechanism to reabsorb the sugar as it thaws out.
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