A TREE frog has miraculously survived after being frozen rock solid. The tiny frog was found covered in a layer of ice in a walk-in freezer - set at -18C - at a Darwin cafeteria. When put out to defrost it fully recovered and started breathing. "I couldn't believe it," Sue Hoddinott, who found the amphibian, said. "He was completely frozen rock solid.
"When I found him I thought 'Poor little thing', and I went to put it in the bin.
"But a friend said not to, as she had seen on TV that they can come back to life when defrosted.
"I told her she had been watching too many movies, but I did it anyway.
"She ran her finger over his back to wipe the ice off and he started breathing again -- it was amazing."
Ms Hoddinott, 47, of Karama, is a chef at Charles Darwin University. The frog was thawed back to life on Monday morning but its frost-bitten toes and feet are not functioning.
FrogWatch NT co-ordinator Graeme Sawyer said it was an unusual story. But he did not rule out the possibility of a frog being revived after it was frozen. "I've never heard of it happening with Australian species but there are American frogs that can be defrosted and come back to life," he said.
Mr Sawyer said the tree frog looked like the litoria rothii species. "(But) it may be an import from Queensland or somewhere," he said. "If it was in a freezer it may have come in the same way the 'banana box frogs' turn up at markets around Australia."
