Fact check: Freezing wood frogs are real, but not shown in viral image
The claim: Image shows frozen wood frog
Some social media users are sharing an image they claim shows a frozen wood frog.
The subject of the image is a green creaturecovered in frost crystals.
"In Alaska, wood frogs freeze for seven months a year," reads a July 25 Facebook post featuring the image. "Their hearts stop beating, their blood no longer flows and their glucose levels sky rocket. When finally the weather gets warmer, they thaw and hop away."
The post garnered thousands of interactions within four days.
It is accurate that wood frogs regularly survive being frozen in winter, according to scientific papers on the subject. However, the image included with the post does not show a wood frog.
Versions of the claim have circulated on social media since at least 2015.
Paste BN reached out to the Facebook users who shared the post for comment.
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Image does not show wood frog
The statements about the freezing frogs made in the social media post are accurate, according to a 2014 Los Angeles Times article about the frogs.
The verbiage in the post is very similar to the text in that article and, at times, identical.
The article also notes that the frogs do not freeze completely solid, but two-thirds of the water in their body does turn to ice. Researchers also observed the frogs spending a week or more freezing and thawing before entering their longer-term frozen state.
Paste BN reviewed pictures of the wood frogs featured in peer-reviewed publications about the animals' freezing adaptation. The frogs do not resemble the object in the image.
Unlike the creature in the social media post, wood frogs have eyes that are positioned on top of their triangular heads.
Paste BN was unable to find the source of the image in the post.
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Our rating: False
Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that an image shows a frozen wood frog. While it is accurate that wood frogs survive freezing during winter, the image shows an unknown object that does not resemble an actual wood frog.
Our fact-check sources:
- Journal of Experimental Biology, Sept. 15, 2013, Hibernation physiology, freezing adaptation and extreme freeze tolerance in a northern population of the wood frog
- Los Angeles Times, July 24, 2014, In Alaska, wood frogs freeze for seven months, thaw and hop away
- Journal of Experimental Biology, April 15, 2014, Wood frog adaptations to overwintering in Alaska: new limits to freezing tolerance
- Live Science, Sept. 26, 2012, Can frogs survive being frozen?
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