This frog freezes solid — it stops breathing, its heart stops beating — yet it remains alive, in this state for up to eight months.

The wood frog undergoes one of nature's wildest miracles and wintertime transformations.

Frog hibernation

Frogs are cold-blooded, so their body temperature is about the same as the surrounding air.

Most frogs hibernate by going deep underwater, in lakes or streams, where they are cold but never frozen.

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The wood frog, however, chooses an out-of-water strategy, settling down into the leafy litter of a forest floor. Those leaves partially insulate them, but not enough to protect from subfreezing temperatures.

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Frozen alive

Once settled under the leaves, ice fills the wood frog's abdominal cavity, encasing its organs. Ice crystals then form between the frog's layers of skin and muscle. And the frog's eyes turn white as the lens freezes.

The secret to the wood frog's survival lies in its blood. During this time, its liver produces large amounts of glucose that flushes into every cell in its body — preventing the cells themselves from freezing.

If you found a wood frog in this state, it would seem like it was set in stone, frozen solid and without any movement.

The spring thaw

In spring, the wood frog begins to thaw — from the inside out. Its heart starts beating again, and then its brain becomes active, and finally it begins to move. In just 10 hours, it's back to how it was before winter began.

The wood frog is able to survive, seemingly completely untouched, conditions that would kill nearly all other animals.

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And this method of hibernating gives the wood frog a big advantage: It becomes active again earlier and quicker than the frogs that hibernate in water.

That's because land thaws and warms more quickly than an ice-covered lake would.

The wood frog then begins the springtime breeding journey, searching for a water source to lay its eggs.

What wood frogs can teach us

Much of the wood frog's miraculous winter hibernation still isn't fully understood by scientists — including how its heart is able to stop and start beating again months later.

But it's possible that what we could learn from the wood frog could benefit human health.

Understanding the capacity to tolerate blood sugar levels 100 times higher than normal without harm could help those with diabetes.

Surviving the freeze could open doors to how we freeze and thaw human organs used for transplants without damage.

And starting and stopping blood circulation — without blood clots or other injuries — could provide insights on how to treat people whose blood flow is halted by heart attack or stroke.

Content writer Ada Wood enjoys exploring the stories that science and climate teach us about our natural world and how it influences the way we live in it.