Fall Frog

October 13th and I’m in awe as I carefully tread through the still sinking mud of the tiny patch of wetland. No longer filled with a layer of water. I’m curious to see if any of the boreal chorus frogs I had spotted a couple weeks prior are still about. The temperatures have been dropping as low as -7C for consecutive nights, but today, there’s a warm sun that still has lingering hints of summer. As I approach, a few of the miniscule frogs hop. Slower moving but still out. Like the wood frog, boreal chorus frogs do not burrow down into the mud and soil for winter. With higher levels of glucose in their bloodstream they are able to withstand the harsh temperatures of the north and prairies. Like antifreeze in water lines, the glucose prevents their blood from freezing during hibernation.