Pond Frogs Didn't Survive

[Heatheranne]

Just taking a guess, but I'm wondering if either the water was too warm to entirely slow down enough to hibernate, meaning they would need food, or too cold. At a depth of 4' they can survive if its underground.

Sorry they did not make it. I'm sure more will come. When winter comes kick them out of the pond and cover it. Once they know where water and bugs are they will likely continue to return.

[JBtheExplorer]

I'm sure more will come.

Funny you should say that. I've already got a new Green Frog hanging out. My pond has been taken out to put in a larger one, so he/she has been patiently waiting in part of my stream. It sat out all day today watching me work on digging its new home.

[Ted]

A frog doesn't dig far into the mud in the water or it will suffocate,they usually stay on top of it.depth doesn't matter either as frogs actually freeze in the winter.their body creates a type of anti freeze that keeps them from dying,all body functions slow down ..so it might be in the water...

[UncleChester]

I'll second Heather's advice. We have an artificial pond, also about 3' deep. In particularly long and cold winters, we'd have far too many dead frogs so we've taken to punting them all out in the fall. We'd relocate them to a much deeper and larger spring fed pond (~8' deep and 100' across) at the back of the property. Frogs always find the smaller artificial pond come spring time.

This was a really bad winter. At the large pond, I'd usually find one or two dead frogs around the perimeter when the ice starts to clear (no matter what, they're not all going to make it). It's cleared around the edge as of yesterday and I've found about a dozen Leopard frogs belly up so far.

A frog doesn't dig far into the mud in the water or it will suffocate,they usually stay on top of it.depth doesn't matter either as frogs actually freeze in the winter.their body creates a type of anti freeze that keeps them from dying,all body functions slow down ..so it might be in the water...

Only a handful of frogs have anti-freeze like protection, green frogs and bullfrogs are not among them. They can't handle freezing. Water is densest at about 4C, and the pond hibernating frogs rely on this relatively warm water sinking to the bottom of the pond for them to winter in.

[Ted]

bullfrog needs deeper water in the winter , but yes they produce a antifreeze in their bodies also..Their glucose raises higher to keep them from freezing..

[UncleChester]

bullfrog needs deeper water in the winter , but yes they produce a antifreeze in their bodies also..Their glucose raises higher to keep them from freezing..

Bullfrogs aren't considered freeze tolerant according to any papers I've read. For example, http://www.units.miamioh.edu/cryolab...tanzoLee99.pdf mentions:

"Arnong the ranids, freeze tolerance has been demonstrated only in the most terrestrial species, the wood frog (Rana sylvatica), although it is likely that Palearctic brown frogs with similar habits (e.g., Rana arvalis; Kuzmin 1995) are also freeze tolerant."

I'd love to see any references you have, it could be a matter of degrees of 'freeze tolerance' if bullfrogs produce some level of cryoprotectants.

[Ted]

I'm not an expert,I went to google and typed in "do bullfrogs freeze in the winter?"..