Do Animals Have Antifreeze?

Arctic Cod, Public Domain, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration

on January 27, 2025

Hi! Welcome back to the Kids Answers magazine blog, where we answer your big questions about God’s Word and God’s world.

In the January–March 2025 issue of Kids Answers magazine, we uncovered God’s cool gift of ice and the use of antifreeze, a chemical additive that lowers another substance’s freezing point.

What Is Antifreeze?

Without a way to cool themselves, car engines will overheat and stop running. So in the early days, automakers introduced water-cooled engines. However, in winter, pure water inside an engine will freeze and expand, causing metal parts to crack. So automakers and engineers had to look for ways to prevent water from freezing.

The solution was an idea called antifreeze. At first, alcohol was mixed with water to create a kind of antifreeze for cars. But in 1926, a chemical called ethylene glycol (EH-thuh-leen GLY-kahl) was used since it worked better than alcohol. Over the years, people have experimented with other kinds of antifreeze, but to this day ethylene glycol remains popular.

Animal Antifreeze

When the temperatures drop to freezing, how do animals stay warm? God made some animals with special antifreeze proteins in their blood that help them to survive and thrive, even in the coldest places. The proteins attach to ice crystals in the animal’s blood, keeping the ice crystals from piling up and getting any bigger and helping the animal’s blood to remain liquid. Check out this list of amazing antifreeze animals.

  • Icefish swarm in the frigid oceans near Antarctica.
  • Ocean pout dwell in the cold deep oceans around the world.
  • Arctic cod swim deep in the cold Arctic Ocean.
  • Wood frogs hop around Alaska, Canada, and the Midwestern and Northeastern US.
  • Springtails, also known as snow fleas, exist in almost every area on earth. Springtails are usually one to two millimeters long.
  • Tardigrades, also known as water bears, live in nearly every environment on earth. The tiny water bears are usually about a millimeter in size.

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