Every once in a while, we would find frogs sitting on a stick under the open sky, on nights when it was so cold they could barely move,” said Dr. Chris Tracy, who led the research. “It was a real puzzle.The researchers designed a series of experiments using real frog dens in eucalyptus trees and artificial ones made from PVC pipe. They wanted to see if the frogs could collect enough moisture through condensation to compensate for what they lost being in the cold. They found that a cold night out cost a frog as much as .07 grams of water. However, a frog could gain nearly .4 grams, or nearly 1 percent of its total body weight, in water upon returning to the warm den.When there’s no water available, even a small amount can mean the difference between surviving the dry season or not.
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Tree frogs chill out to collect precious water
