Water-Holding Frog

The water-holding frog stores water in its bladder and beneath its skin before burrowing underground for estivation—so much water that Aboriginal Australians traditionally dug them up as emergency water sources in the desert. This internal reservoir extends estivation duration beyond what metabolism reduction alone would permit. The frog brings its own water supply into dormancy.

This resource-storage strategy adds a second survival mechanism atop metabolic reduction. The lungfish consumes muscle tissue during estivation; the water-holding frog consumes stored water. Both represent capital consumption during dormancy, but water is easier to replenish than muscle tissue. The frog's strategy is less physically costly.

For business strategy, the water-holding frog illustrates how organizations can extend survival duration through resource accumulation before entering dormancy. Companies that build cash reserves during good times can weather longer downturns. Private equity firms' 'dry powder' serves exactly this function: stored capital deployable during extended periods of limited opportunity.

The Aboriginal use of water-holding frogs as water sources demonstrates how dormant organisms can have value beyond their own survival. Dormant business assets—unused patents, mothballed facilities, suspended product lines—may provide value to others even while not serving the owning organization's direct purposes. Licensing, sale, or partnership can extract value from dormancy.