Lee Duncan., age 12, of Tulsa, Okla., for the question:
Where do frogs spend the winter?
The last frog disappears from the woodland scene before the first snow flurry. No, he does not migrate to a warmer climate. The truth is, he is still with us. But he is so well hidden that we are not likely to disturb him. The sensible fellow is hibernating, deep in his winter sleep.
Frogs and toads begin to prepare for their winter sleep in the fall. During the last warm days they are very busy eating extra rations. The tailless amphibians, which is the fancy term for the frogs and toads, are putting on extra fat. This fat is stored food which will supply them through the winter when they cannot eat. Most of the frogs grow from eggs to tadpoles to the adult stage in about two months. The bullfrog remains a tadpole for a whole year. Born in the spring, he is a 'pig, fat five‑inch tadpole by fall. He too eats extra food to see him through his first winter.
Just before the first frost, all the frantic activity in the frog world comes to a sudden stop. Each little fellow has found his winter quarters and turned in for the long, long sleep ahead. Mr. Frog may take one last dive to the bottom of his favorite pond. Down under the water he digs himself into the mud and old leaves rotting on the floor. Jack Frost may come and freeze the surface of the pond into a glassy sheet of ice. But the frog knows that the floor of his pond will not freeze.
If the pond does not appeal to him, Mr. Frog may bed himself down on the dry land. He may find a crevice among the rooks and stones. Or he may find a hole just big enough in an old log or in a hollow tree. But the big bullfrog tadpole will certainly choose to hide himself in the mud at the bottom of his pond.
Mr. Toad will dig himself a burrow in the soft ground. He descends into the hole, hind end first, until he is a foot below the surface. There he tucks himself he tucks himself in and, with a broad grin on his face, he sleeps safe and sound until spring.
During hibernation, the amphibians sink into a deep coma. The heart slows down to almost nothing. Breathing through the lungs stops altogether. The wonderful skin of the amphibian can, when moist, dissolve oxygen directly into the blood stream. Of course, there is no eating, no movement of any kind. The body processes are kept going at a minimum.