This past fall, a colleague moved some plants from his deck inside his home. Imagine his surprise last weekend when he went to move the bench they were on and placed his hand on something soft and squishy! It turned out to be a gray tree frog which he brought into my classroom. My moss terrarium (thanks Cloe!) seemed to be waiting for an occupant other than bryophytes and a Buddha statue. One of my seniors dubbed the frog 'Sid' since his favorite spot seems to be on top of Siddhartha Buddha's head.
Fun fact about gray tree frogs: they actually freeze in the winter! The gray tree frog produces large amounts of glycerol. The glycerol is changed to glucose and then it is circulated through the frog's cells. The glucose acts like kind of antifreeze and prevents ice crystals from forming in the cells (if ice crystals formed in the cells, they would rip the cells apart and kill the frog). The rest of the water and blood in the frogs body then freezes and its heartbeat and breathing stop. When the temperature warms up, the tree frog "thaws out" and returns to the trees! How cool is that?! It is my goal to set Sid free in the woods behind our house, by a wetland area filled with frogs in the spring. So far, he has taken well to captivity, but that may be a function of his diet of vitamin dusted crickets, wax worms, beetles and the occasional fly and moth!
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