Wood Frog

Wood Frog found in the Columbia Wetlands - Photo by Larry Halverson

Mike Kerr, from Canmore, writes about the Wood Frog in his book The Canadian Rockies Guide to Wildlife Watching

"The Wood Frog is the most terrestrial of frogs, so it may show up some distance from water. It is a truly Canadian frog, if ever there was one. Throughout Canada, the Wood frog is more widespread, found at higher elevations (up to 2,500 m), and encountered farther north than any other amphibian. In fact, it is the only amphibian that lives north of the Arctic Circle

Wood frogs survive our cold winter by burrowing under the forest floor. They also benefit from some nifty internal engineering, surviving temperatures as low as –6 degrees C with up to two-thirds of their body’s water in a frozen state. Wood Frogs pump large volumes of glucose into their cells; the glucose acts like antifreeze, allowing the water between the cells to freeze, while protecting the internal cell contents" 
It covers all the mountain National Parks and there are a number of pages are dedicated to the Columbia Valley.


For a full report on Wood Frogs see Wildlife Afield