Hibernating frogs....

Some poor pictures I took today of some hibernating frogs lying motionless at the bottom of a small pond:

The pond belongs to my father-in-law who assures me that they are very much alive and not all dead as they appear (I sure hope he's right!!)

Hmm, they do look dead don't they! I'm sure they don't hibernate with their eyes closed

My mother-in-law swears she saw some move - hopefully some are ok

The pond isn't that deep so it would not suprise me that with the recent cold snap the temperature at the bottom went below 4 degrees.

I'll get my father-in-law to gently prod them with a stick and fish out the dead ones.

Cheers

Paul

Hi Paul

Those frogs look every bit as alive as the Norweigian Blue in the Parrot sketch...

Iced over ponds often end up with a mass of dead frogs in them, especially males which chose the strategy of overwintering in the pond to be first on the scene for the females (which mostly hibernate on land) in the spring.  This year I guess the winning strategy will be those males which played safe and wintered on land (assuming they chose frost free sites).

I agree with Paul - fish them out of the pond before decomposition makes the water more anaerobic, which will kill more frogs - a vicious circle

Cheers

Will