Лесной лягушка: экология и распространение в Северной Америке.

Species of amphibian

Lithobates sylvaticus commonly known as the wood frog, is a frog species that has a broad distribution over North America, extending from the boreal forest of the north to the southern Appalachians, with several notable disjunct populations including lowland eastern North Carolina. The wood frog has garnered attention from biologists because of its freeze tolerance, relatively great degree of terrestrialism (for a ranid), interesting habitat associations (peat bogs, vernal pools, uplands), and relatively long range movements. The ecology and conservation of the wood frog has attracted research attention in recent years because they are often considered "obligate" breeders in ephemeral wetlands (sometimes called "vernal pools"), which are themselves more imperiled than the species that breed in them. The wood frog has been proposed to be the official state amphibian of New York.

Wood frogs range from in length. Females are larger than males.

The contiguous wood frog range is from northern Georgia and northeastern Canada in the east to Alaska and southern British Columbia in the west. It is the most widely distributed frog in Alaska. It is also found in the Medicine Bow National Forest.

Wood frogs are forest dwelling organisms that breed primarily in ephemeral, freshwater wetlands: woodland vernal pools. They are nonarboreal and spend most of their time of the forest floor. Long distance migration plays an important role in their life history. Individual wood frogs range widely (hundreds of metres) among their breeding pools and neighboring freshwater swamps, cool moist ravines, and/or upland habitats. Genetic neighborhoods of individual pool breeding populations extend more than a kilometre away from the breeding site. Thus, conservation of this species requires a landscape (multiple habitats at appropriate spatial scales) perspective. They also can be camouflaged with their surroundings. A study was done on wood frogs dispersal patterns in 5 ponds at the Appalachian Mountains where they reported adult wood frogs were 100% faithful to the pond of their first breeding but 18% of juveniles dispersed to breed in other ponds. Adult wood frogs spend summer months in moist woodlands, forested swamps, ravines, or bogs. During the fall, they leave summer habitats and migrate to neighboring uplands to overwinter. Some may remain in moist areas to overwinter. Hibernacula tend to be in the upper organic layers of the soil, under leaf litter. By overwintering in uplands adjacent to breeding pools, adults ensure a short migration to thawed pools in early spring. Wood frogs are mostly diurnal and are rarely seen at night, except maybe in breeding choruses. They are one of the first amphibians to emerge for breeding right when the snow melts, along with spring peepers.

Wood frogs eat a variety of small, forest floor invertebrates, with a diet primarily consisting of insects. The tadpoles are omnivorous, feeding on plant detritus and algae along with other tadpoles of their own and other species. Frogs can survive many freeze/thaw events during winter if no more than about 65% of the total body water freezes. Wood frogs have a series of seven amino acid substitutions in the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase 1 (SERCA 1) enzyme ATP binding site that allows this pump to function at lower temperatures relative to less cold tolerant species (e. g. Lithobates clamitans). compared to those in more temperate zones of its range. These conspecifics also showed higher enzymatic activity of the glycogen phosphorylase which facilitates the freezing. The phenomenon of cold resistance is observed in other anuran species. The Japanese tree frog shows even greater cold tolerance than the wood frog, surviving in temperatures as low as 35 °C ( 31 °F) for up to 120 days. Studies on different populations of wood frogs found that Alaskan wood frogs have larger liver glycogen reserves and higher enzymatic activity of glycogen phosphorylase, which facilitates freezing, compared to frogs in more temperate zones.

L. sylvaticus primarily breeds in ephemeral pools rather than permanent water bodies such as ponds or lakes. Males actively search for mates by swimming around the pool and calling. Females, on the other hand, will stay under the water and rarely surface, most likely to avoid sexual harassment. A male approaches a female and clasps her from behind her forearms before hooking his thumbs together in a hold called "amplexus", which is continued until the female deposits the eggs. Another study has found increased tolerance to salt with higher concentrations, though the authors caution against over extrapolating from short term, high concentration studies to longer term, lower concentration conditions, as contradictory outcomes occur. Following metamorphosis, a small percentage (less than 20%) of juveniles will disperse, permanently leaving the vicinity of their natal pools. The majority of offspring are philopatric, returning to their natal pool to breed.