Please release me .. let me go

.... as Engelbert Humperdinck sang in 1985 (but not my kind of music!).

We saw about three of these little Wood Frogs at Elkton/Cremona Bog on July 30th last year, all of them very dark, so presumably they are Dark Phase/Dark Morph species? This little one allowed one of us (not me!) to hold him gently so that a few photos could be taken, to add to our botanizing day records. I'd never seen a Dark Morph before - didn't even know there was such a thing. Wood Frogs are only 30 to 60 millimetres (about one to two inches) in length. Thanks, little guy, for helping us learn new things : )

"Coloration varies from pink-tan, gray, olive-green, various shades of brown, to almost black; whitish jaw stripe contrasts with a dark eye mask that extends from the nostril over the eye and just behind the ear; light dorsal stripe is frequently present" From fanweb.ca/resources-services/alberta-natural-history/amph...

The following link goes to a short, fascinating video on YouTube, about how Wood Frogs freeze solid in the winter.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjr3A_kfspM