Alligators are using a bizarre tactic to survive in frozen US ponds
A North Carolina swamp park has posted a video explaining how alligators survive in a frozen pond, and it’s both creepy and bizarre.
The cold-blooded animals essentially allow themselves to be frozen in place, with their noses just above the surface, according to a video posted on Facebook by Shallotte River Swamp Park in Ocean Isle Beach, 320km east of Charlotte.
What passers-by see is noses and teeth sticking out of the ice. That ice formed last week when a massive “bomb cyclone” storm blew up the coastline, bringing record lows. The family-owned outdoor adventure park’s “alligators on ice” video has received tens of thousands of views on Facebook.
“Just hanging out in the water,” says narrator George Howard in the video, showing close ups of the snouts sticking through the ice. “Pretty amazing. … Look at those teeth. This is the time of year when they are just hanging out, waiting for it to get warm.”
The alligators seem to instinctively know when the water is about to freeze, says Howard, who is general manager of the park. They respond by sticking their nose above the surface at just the right moment, allowing the water to freeze around them.
Alligators then enter “a state of brumation, like hibernating.” Alligators can regulate their body temperature in all sorts of weather, park officials said, and can essentially remain frozen in place until the ice melts.
