For all humans, it is extremely difficult to hold on to their pee. One can control for a while, but once you've got to go, you tend to feel all restless until you go and relieve yourself. But a particular frog has to hold on to their urination for almost months! It may sound unbelievable and bizarre, but that is a key to their survival during hibernation. The wood frogs which reside in Alaska go eight months without peeing. Scientists have researched and found out how and why they do it.
A study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. has given the details of these frogs survival skills in their hibernation period. It states the wood frogs have special microbes in their guts that recycle the urea. The urea which is the main waste in urine is recycled into nitrogen which helps the survival of these frogs while they freeze in the cold. The body of these frogs does not warm, but the urea protects cells and tissues. The frog's pee thus acts antifreeze for them.
Jon Costanzo, a zoologist at Miami University in Ohio, who has co-authored the study has said, "Other animals don’t urinate when they hibernate, but mammals don’t do the big freeze quite like wood frogs, which wake up in still-cold February to mate." He and his teammates studied the bacteria that live in these frog's guts. It’s called Pseudomonas, and it thrives in the cold. The stress to not urinate can be harmful to any of the mammals and could even kill the frogs. But these wood frogs do it, and once they come out from hibernation, they go on as nothing happened. “People are fascinated by bear hibernation, but in my book any animal that allows itself to freeze solid and is able to recover from it and walk away and thus go about its business like nothing happened, to me that’s about as cool as it gets," Costanzo told the Associated Press. The wood frogs are commonly found in the range from northern Georgia and northeastern Canada in the east to Alaska. It is the most widely distributed frog in Alaska.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 03, 2018 02:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).