Alligators Beat ‘Bomb Cyclone’ By Freezing Themselves In Place

10 January 2018

 -The ‘bomb cyclone’ that froze the eastern seaboard of the US last week forced many to take extreme measures to stay warm and stay alive, including a group of rather inventive alligators in North Carolina.

Footage captured by the staff of the Shallotte River Swamp Park in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina shows the somewhat surreal survival technique employed by the cold-blooded reptiles which allows them to be frozen in place in the park’s pond. Even the ‘bomb cyclone,’ which wrought havoc across the eastern seaboard of the US, couldn’t catch these crafty creatures off guard. 

The gators instinctively know when the water around them is about to freeze and raise their snouts at just the right time, allowing them to enter a state of brumation, a kind of hibernation that also involves slowing down an animal’s metabolism.

Videos showing the alligators “just hanging out in the water,” have garnered tens of thousands of views since they were published over the weekend.