Images of frozen alligators are causing quite a stir online. Are they dead or alive?
Videos of frozen alligators in North Carolina and Texas have captivated audiences across the country.
The photos and videos of "gatorcicles" with their snouts and mouths sticking out have sparked fear and amazement online.
While the sight may be alarming, those who work with the alligators say the reptile isn't dead and there's nothing to fret about – it's simply a survival instinct. As temperatures drop, alligators in the South rely on this adaptation that is so rarely observed.
"The key to life is adaptation, who better to show this than the American Alligator," the Swamp Park & Outdoor Center, a tourist attraction that lets people see alligators in their natural habitat said in one of several posts of the gators frozen in ponds.
An employee of the park located in Ocean Isle Beach, located about 45 miles south of Wilmington, North Carolina, explained in a video posted this week, that when it gets too cold, alligators “will instinctively tilt their nose up, to the point where it’s out of the water, so they don’t just suffocate."
“Think of it as a cute little danger snorkel,” the employee said.
In another video posted by Eddie Hanhart on TikTok, an alligator could be seen frozen in the water in Beaumont, Texas.
“We bundle up but this is what the American alligator does,” he said in the video. “See he knew he was gonna freeze last night, so what he does is he went and found him a nice comfy spot.”
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Mammals go into hibernation, reptiles go into brumation
The phenomenal site of the frozen gators is thanks to the adaption technique known as brumation.
According to the South Carolina Aquarium, brumation is the reptilian equivalent of mammal hibernation.
While both hibernation and brumation are "periods of dormancy where physiological processes decelerate in response to cold temperatures," there are some distinctions between the two.
The University of Texas at Austin’s Biodiversity Center explained that "animals experience physiological changes similar to hibernation, but on warmer days, these animals will move about. This is because they rely on the environment to regulate their body temperature."
Reptiles in brumation also don't eat, but they continue to drink to avoid being dehydrated, the aquarium noted.
Alligators become lethargic and have slowed metabolic rate when they brumate.