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A photograph purportedly showing a frozen Alaskan tree frog has been circulating on the Internet since at least 2013, frequently accompanied by a brief sentence explaining how this amazing amphibian supposedly survives the harsh arctic winters: While there is a species of frog in Alaska that can survive the area's harsh winters, that species is not the Alaskan tree frog. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, that state is home to two species of frogs: The Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) and the wood frog (Rana sylvatica). There is no animal known as an Alaskan tree frog. There is, however, an amphibian that lives in Alaska and has an unusually high tolerance for freezing conditions. In August 2013, a report was published in The Journal of Experimental Biology explaining how the wood frog was able to survive long winters in Alaska: The viral photograph displayed above does not show an Alaskan tree frog (since no such animal exists), nor does it show a wood frog. This widely-circulated image appears to be simply a garden ornament that has been covered with frost. The video below shows what an actual wood frog looks like as it freezes and thaws during the winter:
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