The state into which frogs fall in winter. Hibernation of amphibians
Some animals sleep in very special ways. The average person needs at least 8 hours of sleep a night to recharge for the day. Excessive sleep duration, just like lack of sleep, sooner or later leads to health problems. Animals also need sleep to stay healthy and strong. And each species has its own preferences, frequency and duration of sleep. But out of thousands of animal species, there are some that sleep in a very special way.
1. Giraffe.
The giraffe requires the shortest amount of sleep among mammals. In order to get enough sleep, he needs only 10 minutes to 2 hours of sleep per day. On average, giraffes sleep about two hours a day.
2. Brown bat.
This bat lives up to 33 years and usually sleeps 19 hours a day.
3. Fat-tailed dwarf lemur.
This lemur is the first tropical primate to hibernate in the summer, defying modern biological laws. The temperature at which the dwarf lemur hibernates is about 30 degrees Celsius. Moreover, during hibernation, the lemur does not control its body temperature, as a result of which it changes in accordance with the ambient temperature. The duration of its hibernation is 7 months a year.
4. Guinea baboon.
He sleeps on his heels at the top of a tree. This allows him to be on guard in case enemies are nearby.
5. Sonya.
This is why this mouse is called the dormouse, because it also hibernates for 6 months a year, or even longer if the ambient temperature remains cool enough. Sometimes dormice wake up for short periods of time to snack on the food that they have previously stored somewhere nearby.
Dormice have a subfamily - forest dormouse. Their peculiarity is that they can sleep on a tree branch for a long time, ready to wake up at the same moment as soon as the branch moves even slightly from a breath of wind.
6. Reptiles.
Reptiles fall into a special form of hibernation, a kind of slumber. Its difference from hibernation lies in the peculiarities of metabolism. Reptiles periodically wake up to drink water.
7. Frogs.
They are one of the most prominent hibernating animals. The northern leopard frog, for example, hibernates at the bottom of a deep lake, far from its icy surface. The frog's body contains a kind of natural antifreeze, so some species can survive in a frozen state, without heartbeat or breathing, for weeks at a time.
8. Swanson's thrush.
This bird dozes hundreds of times a day during its migrations. Moreover, each such dream lasts several seconds.
9. Common nightjar.
The common nightjar is known for being the only bird capable of falling into torpor for long periods of time (weeks to months). This is how he spends his winter time. This long period of torpor is very similar to hibernation, which has not yet been observed among birds.
10. Albatross.
These birds are known for sleeping in flight. Even while flying at their cruising speed of 25 km/h. In addition, albatrosses are also known for their largest wingspan among living birds, reaching 3.7 meters.
11. Ducks.
Ducks and many other birds sleep with one eye open, which allows them to protect themselves from sudden attacks by predators.
At the same time, wild ducks sleep differently when gathered in a group. So that the birds inside can sleep more deeply, while sentries are on duty around the edges.
Lawson Schroeder
Rana sylvatica- the tree frog winters in Alaska like this: it freezes in winter to such an extent that it becomes like an ice cube. Being in a frozen state, the frog does not breathe, frog heart and her circulation stops, she cannot move. However, with the onset of spring, the frog “thaws out” and returns to normal life. It is highly unlikely that such a skill could develop spontaneously, by coincidence. In order to force frog heart and its systems function again, an extremely complex genetic program must be activated.
The adult tree frog, which reaches only about 8 cm in length, has an unusual head color that resembles a black mask. Such frogs live in Canada and the United States of America - from Alaska to Alabama. In Alaska, tree frogs live in a wide variety of environments—grasslands, forests, peat bogs, and tundra. The tree frog is one of three species of frogs found in the Arctic Circle.
The body temperature of this cold-blooded amphibian tends to the temperature of its environment, which is typical for amphibians.
Summer in Denali National Park, located in the heart of Alaska, is a warm and pleasant time of year. This is an excellent habitat for arboreal trees, because there are many insects on which they feed. However, winters in this area of Alaska incredibly harsh: The average January temperature near the administrative building of Denali National Park reaches -17°C, the lowest temperature was –48°C.
The animals that live here survive these extremely cold winters in different ways. Most birds migrate to countries with warmer climates. Other animals move around the park because their bodies have sufficient thermal insulation to protect them from freezing. However, the tree frog does not avoid cold weather and does not fight it; the frog remains at home in winter. Even before winter arrives, her liver stores glucose. When a tree frog begins to freeze, the liver releases large amounts of glucose into the bloodstream, most of which enters the cells of the frog's body and plays the role of a kind of antifreeze, preventing them from freezing.
Having prepared its heart and whole body for winter, the frog finds a small cup-shaped depression in the ground left by the rhizome of a plant to provide thermal insulation, lining its surface with dry grass and twigs. The frog then burrows into its hiding place and enters hibernation. Snow covering this “den” provides additional thermal insulation and protects the frog from extremely low temperatures in winter.
In winter, about 35–45% of the frog's body fluid freezes. This extracellular ice is mainly found under the skin and between muscles. Thanks to this the frog becomes hard like a piece of ice! Most of these ice frogs survive the winter in Alaska in burrows, at ground level.
With the arrival of spring, the tree frog completes its truly amazing transformation. In just a few hours the frozen body of the frog comes to life: normal breathing, heartbeat, blood circulation, as well as the functioning of the brain and all functional systems are restored. The frog can move, jump and mate again.
Some adherents of the theory of evolution claim that the tree frog is a mystery of nature - a kind of Rip Van Winkle of the animal world.
The tree frog's extraordinary ability to recover from freezing leads some scientists to believe that the human body, or at least some of its organs, can be frozen and then brought back to life. Whether this is possible or not - we will see in the future.
The tree frog's genetic program has been engineered to allow it to thrive in extreme climates. Without its ability to "thaw", the tree frog would not be able to live in this region. Scientists have discovered several ways in which the tree frog performs this extraordinary trick.
Some details: the created type of frogs and frost resistance
There are several species of frogs that can tolerate low temperatures. This is due to one unique gene responsible for encoding a 390 amino acid protein found in the liver Rana sylvatica (wood frog), Pseudacris crucifer (coast tree frog) and Hyla versicolor (variable tree frog). Frogs that cannot tolerate frost do not have this gene.1 Frost-resistant species of frogs come from two different families - Hylidae (tree frogs) and Ranidae (true frogs) from the suborder Neobatrachia of the order Anura (tailless amphibians)2. However, most representatives of these families are not capable of surviving at low temperatures.
How does this characterize the first frog, created about six thousand years ago? Was there one original “created genus” of frogs, represented today by the suborder Neobatrachia, from which modern frost-tolerant frog species arose, and does this mean that the rest of the family have lost this ability? It's possible. The fact that many species of frogs hybridize allows us to assume that the "created genus" of frogs is at the family level or even higher.
All frogs are extremely similar, making them difficult to classify. According to some researchers, “all frogs are characterized by limited morphological variability”.3 The vague nature of similar elements in many families of frogs of the suborder Neobatrachia explains the presence of several different systems of their classification. One article on frogs noted: "The relationships between frog families are still in question".4
Perhaps the diversity of modern frog species is due to the fact that some of their species survived beyond Noah's Ark, as evidenced by the vast geography of the habitat of frog families on the planet.
Notes and comments:
- J. D. McNally. Freeze resistance genes in the liver of a frost-tolerant tree frog. Rana sylvatica, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1625(2):183–191, 2003.
- A generally accepted classification system is presented on the website, although such systems vary considerably.
- S. Hoegg. Phylogeny and comparative rates of substitution in frogs based on the sequence of three nuclear genes. Molecular biology and evolution 21 (7):1188–1200.
- Frog. , September 6, 2006.
There are more than 30 different species of frogs in the world. The most common are the tree frog, leopard frog and bullfrog. Frogs are a very numerous species of amphibians, so it is not for nothing that many are interested in the question of where and how frogs hibernate.
Frogs come in different sizes, shapes and colors. There are even poisonous frogs, but fortunately they are found only in tropical forests. There are very small little frogs that live on a tree. Their dimensions are no more than 2.5 cm in length. The leopard frog ranges in size from 5 to 10 cm. The largest bullfrog is often 20 cm long and has 25 cm legs. An adult bullfrog is predominantly dark green or brown in color, making it difficult to spot among algae or on muddy shores.
So how do frogs spend the winter?
What do frogs do in winter? In regions where cold air prevails, with the onset of frost, frogs climb into bodies of water, bury themselves in the silt and remain there throughout the winter. Reservoirs do not freeze completely, even in the most severe frosts, so frogs survive, as if in a thermos.
Why don't frogs freeze in winter?
Frogs are cold-blooded animals that can live both in water and on land. When the frog's body temperature becomes the same as the air temperature, the need for oxygen noticeably decreases, and the frog eats almost nothing. That is why the frog is able to stay under water with virtually no air.
Don't forget that water also has some oxygen content, which is quite enough for frogs in winter. Oxygen enters the respiratory system through the skin. frogs often overwinter in a hole, which they find on the shore or hide under stones.
The well-known grass frog hibernates for about 160 days. The wintering period depends on the duration of the cold weather. According to the results of a study by zoological specialists, frogs can fall asleep for the winter even for 6 months. But in the last ten days, if there is a significant cooling, when the night temperature in March is minus 20 degrees, the hibernation time of frogs has reached 200 days. Even if the animal wanted to get out of the pond, the top layer of ice would not allow it to do so. The duration of winter hibernation of a frog depends on the duration of the cold weather. In the north, frogs overwinter for 8 months, in the south - 4.
Are you familiar with the fact that some species of frogs live in trees? These are small tree frogs, which nature has endowed with suction cups or small sticky discs on their feet, which allow winter frogs to climb trees, even in winter.
The wintering process is the same for all species of tailless amphibians. As soon as they feel the cold weather approaching, they immediately begin to prepare for it.
Ground-dwelling frogs prefer to hibernate in soil, fallen leaves, or deep crevices. First, the animal looks for a comfortable place to sleep. Some representatives, such as American toads, burrow deep into the ground, below the freezing level of the soil, and make themselves a small hole, scientifically called a hibernaculum.
Gradually, with the slowing down of life processes, the body of the animal, which soon forms a kind of structure that protects small animals from the cold. During sleep, it uses its own energy reserves and the minimum oxygen needed to maintain life. With the onset of the warm season, he gets out of his house and enters the usual rhythm of life.
Some species of tree frogs prefer to hibernate in crevices between rocks or in tree cracks.
Aquatic frogs are somewhat different. They do not burrow deep into the mud and do not hibernate. On the contrary, compared to their terrestrial brothers, they are even quite active in winter. The leopard frog and the large North American bullfrog, for example, sink slightly into the surface of the water bottom and slow their heartbeat. They do this in order to receive a sufficient amount of oxygen throughout their entire body surface, since they do not have gills, as such. In a state of sleep, they can even move very slowly.
Life after death
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In this state of suspended animation, frogs can exist for up to eight months. However, if the permafrost does reach their hearts, nothing bad will happen. The animal's breathing and heart rate may stop, but the frog will not be able to become covered with ice from the inside due to the high glucose content in its tissues. It can remain in this state for quite a long time until they feel the approaching warming. Gradually, step by step, the animal will return to a normal lifestyle, as if coming to life after death.
The state of suspended animation is only available to cold-blooded animals, since they have no need to generate heat. Therefore, mammals cannot hibernate for long periods of time.
Thanks to this rhythm of life, some species of frogs can live up to ten to fifteen years.
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