Biology · Structural Organisation in Animals · NEET
Aestivation is summer sleep. The frog is not seen during peak summer because it hides in deep burrows to escape extreme heat. Winter sleep is called hibernation. Easy trick: Aestivation and August both start with 'A' and both mean hot.
A frog is a poikilotherm (cold-blooded), so it cannot keep a constant body temperature. Extreme summer heat or winter cold would harm it, so it becomes inactive and shelters in deep burrows until the weather is mild again. This is why frogs are not seen during peak summer and winter.
The NCERT line says the frog changes colour to hide from enemies (camouflage), and it calls this protective coloration 'mimicry'. For NEET, remember the exact NCERT words: the colour-change to hide = camouflage, and this protective coloration is termed mimicry in the textbook. Answer whatever the question quotes from NCERT.
A frog is cold-blooded, also called poikilothermous. Its body temperature varies with the temperature of the environment. It does not stay constant like in warm-blooded (homeothermic) mammals and birds.
Same word, two different meanings. In animals (frog), aestivation = summer sleep, an inactive state to survive heat. In botany, aestivation = the arrangement of sepals or petals in a floral bud (valvate, twisted, imbricate, vexillary). NEET tests both, so read the chapter context before answering.
Try the real previous-year questions from this chapter — each with the answer and a full solution.
Aestivation is the summer sleep of the frog. During peak summer the frog takes shelter in deep burrows to protect itself from extreme heat and stays inactive.
Hibernation is the winter sleep of the frog. During peak winter it shelters in deep burrows to protect itself from extreme cold and remains inactive.
Camouflage is the frog's ability to change its skin colour to match grass or dry land so it can hide from its enemies. NCERT calls this protective coloration mimicry.
Because frogs are poikilotherms and cannot handle extreme temperatures, they hide in deep burrows and become inactive: aestivation in peak summer and hibernation in peak winter.
Rana tigrina, the Indian bullfrog, is the most common frog species found in India, as stated in NCERT.
