Photo of the Day - July 10

This is one of a family of Artic Ground squirrels located on Ft Greely. During hibernation, the body temperature of the arctic ground squirrel drops from 98.6° F to 26.4° F that's below the freezing point of water and is the lowest known body temperature of any living mammal. Most mammals, including people, would be frozen solid at that body temperature! Scientists aren't sure just how these diminutive rodents do it, but they apparently have developed a unique mechanism that allows their body fluids to become super cooled to fall below the freezing point without crystallizing into ice and damaging cell tissue. Photo Courtesy Patrick Clark