It’s an amazing sight to see, an alligator nose and mouth sticking through a frozen sheet of ice. The best thing about it is; that this is a natural response to cold conditions by alligators and it helps them survive freezing weather.
The American Alligator like many other cold blooded reptiles, like it hot, but can survive in cold conditions. When temperatures fall, alligators will slow activity and lose their appetite. Even temperatures below 75° can slow down most gators who spend most of the winter in a hibernation-like state called brumation.
Where alligators roam the waterways, freezing conditions and ice are rare, but when freezing circumstances present themselves the gators can still survive.
Most alligators will opt. to excavate a den and hibernate until spring but will move to where it is the warmest when needed. This past week in Brunswick County, North Carolina, as the coldest air moved in alligators took to the water which was warmer than the air.
Once in the water, alligators will position themselves with nostrils above the surface as ice forms around them. Some may even get stuck in the ice for days before the ice melts and they can swim free.
Alligators have persevered for thousands of years and it was reported that this one in North Carolina survive the cold and ice just fine.